The Smith
by KailaRain
Summary: Explores the idea of who makes weapons for hunters. Includes a fun road trip for the characters and sets the stage for some future stories. Slight AU set sometime after season 7 - roughly. OC but will have more canon characters in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Mirai gathered together the season's worth of work. She was loading items, some she wrapped in silk, others were packed in specially designed padded metal boxes, many were just tossed into the car trunk. This was her biggest collection yet. She had spent a full year in the studio and on the anvil instead of her normal 6 months. The last few years had been a little too good for business. She toyed with the idea of hunting down the Winchesters but wasn't sure if she would thank them or "gank" them. Ugh, she hated that term and thanks to their popularity it was spreading. At least money was no real problem anymore. She had more cash flow now than ever. She pulled her hair back while she worked, letting the cool spring air hit her face. Her eyes were squinting in the bright light, the pupils lost in the dark gray. This was usually the first thing people noticed about her. Of course nothing else was really all that special. She had an athletic build with large shoulders and arms. Her hair was brown, her skin had a natural tan, more like cafe au lait then anything else. She was, other than her talent for metal work, quite normal. Well, if you ignored what she spent her winters creating. She managed to blend in every where she went but, sometimes, she wished it were different.

Who would have thought a chance encounter with a guy looking for a repair to his knife would change her life so much. She had joked that day about how life changing a choice it was to pick between the cranberry scone or the blueberry muffin. After she chose the cranberry the guy at the coffee shop laughed and said, "uh oh, wrong choice." Little did they both know how right he was, and how wrong. She would never change her life now and yet sometimes she wished she could go back to that simpler time in her life. A time when she didn't know about monsters, demons and all the evils of the world. Of course memory tended to cloud things and make the past look nicer. Her prior life hadn't exactly been all roses and sunshine. She had grown up being tossed from foster home to foster home. She never did have a sense of family or belonging. School was a waste of time. Other than her art and auto shop classes she pretty much failed everything and dropped out during her Junior year. She had been living from one art show to another, dabbling in drugs and drinking hardcore until she found this life.

She snapped out of her reverie and kept on loading boxes and items into the trunk of her baby. This was the one real joy of her life and she spent most of her hard earned money keeping it running and adding the special equipment. She shut the trunk on the car and went inside to grab a last few items and lock up the house. Stepping out on the front porch of her tiny house she paused a moment to enjoy the beauty of her 1968 Pontiac GTO. The midnight blue paint job with the spattering of stars under the thick layers of top coat gleamed in the sun. It was like looking at a midnight sky. She had spent most of yesterday cleaning, waxing and polishing the old girl for the start of her busy season. Against the background of rusted old rail-yard buildings and junk cars littered around her yard the GTO looked quite out of place.

The door swung open with ease; the freshly oiled hinges working smoothly. The smell of polished leather made her smile as the engine roared to life under her hands. Every part of the car had been modified to some degree or another. She had souped up the engine, upgraded the interior carpet and upholstery. Anti-angel and demon sigils were carved into the frame, the engine block, stitched into the seats and layered under the paint. It had every protection spell she could find added to it. A state of the art security system finished up the protection.

Including the hidden spot under the trunk, there were various hidden holes throughout the car where she stored some of her goods for sale as well as self-defense items, cash, whiskey, etc. Early on in this career she would transport things for various people to earn extra cash. She wasn't too proud to admit she had been a mule. She ran moonshine in the blue counties in the south, pot for the dopers in the Pacific northwest, and cocaine for the cartels in the Southwest. She felt you did what you had to in order to survive. The smartest investment she made was to add an MP3 dock and update the speakers. The dock was hidden in the glove box so at first glance this was simply a beautifully restored stock car. The downside to having it there was she couldn't reach it while driving. Generally she just plugged in her 64 gigabytes of music, put it on shuffle and hoped for the best.

She timed her sales trips with the car show circuit; no one gave a second glance at someone driving a classic car through town during those Well, actually they did but no more so than any other classic car out and about during that time. It was a lot of fun to check out all the cars out course she wouldn't submit her darling to scrutiny of actually entering a show but she enjoyed visiting them anyway. With Five Finger Death punch screaming from her Crutchfield high performance speakers she spun out of the gravel lot in front of her home and headed down the long drive to the gate entrance.

The property had been an amazing find. She had been lucky enough to come across a building made out of mostly iron surrounded by iron. Apparently at some point this was a rail house where they turned the trains around, it was used for a while as a church by some hippie cult and was now Mirai's home and studio. During the housing crash she had picked it up for a song. It wasn't pretty, or comfortable, or even very warm but it was secluded and safe. She checked the surveillance feed built into her phone and made sure no one was waiting outside the boundaries as she headed out. It seemed a little over the top but when you are one of a few people in the world capable of creating weapons needed to banish a demon or kill a monster, you have to be careful. Her home in the mountains wasn't always the nicest place to be but there was no place safer that she could find.

The spring air still held a hint of snow as she took the curving roads towards the nearest place that passed for civilization in this area. The mountains were still covered in snow and there were pockets of snow under some of the larger trees but she was heading out to California where the spring meant sunshine and warmth, not snow and mud. As much as she loved the solitude that winters up here gave her, she did get sick of the cold by the end of April and was looking forward to sunshine. She sometimes wondered if her there was some force, god or whatever that would guide her shuffle. It seemed too often to be fate, not luck that picked the songs. "Remember Everything" by 5FDP shuffled into "Cemetery Gates" by the Smiths. Morrissey signing about the dreaded sunny day was a little too fitting to just be luck she thought as she drove down toward the mountain town of Sunshine. Why they named it Sunshine when they got maybe 10 days of sun a year, she never knew. Had she ever bothered to do more than buy gas or groceries there she might have learned it was named Sunshine after the daughter of the town finder. Sunshine had been a bright spot in her father's life until some wild creature had stolen her from him. Shortly after the naming was official, he had thrown himself off the railroad trestle that still crossed a ravine at the far east end of Mirai's property. Of course she avoided town so she never learned the truth of the town or her home. Instead she filled up the huge gas tank and headed east and out of the mountains.

Mirai's first official stop was San Rafael, CA. This was usually just a warm up stop for Mirai. Not many hunters worked California on a regular basis so she didn't have a lot of business there. There just weren't as many ghosts and ghoulies out there. Something about the lack of history or the general energy of the people there kept it quiet. Mirai had taken a few days to get to the city taking every round about route available so this wasn't really her first stop, just the first official one. She wanted to make sure no one could trace her path. Sure it was paranoia but just because you were paranoid didn't mean the world wasn't out to get you.

San Rafael was home to the California Mille, a tribute to Italy's most-famous open road race, the Mille Miglia (thousand mile) race. They always kicked it off with an amazing car show. It was generally European higher end cars like Alfa Romeos but as hers wouldn't stand out too much in town. Mirai was looking forward to this show. She had one delivery and then she could just enjoy the show. She found it was best for her to ease into dealing with the crowds and interacting with people as she had been alone for the past 12 months.

She generally purchased two or three months of food at a time. Partially so she could have minimal human interaction and partially because there were simply some months she couldn't make it out of her secluded property. She survived mostly on coffee and whiskey while she created anyway. Sometimes forgetting to sleep until exhaustion overtook her and usually forgetting to eat until a piece was done. She worked best and was her most creative when she had no distractions. The most she would interact was through her website where she would accept orders from a few businesses and individuals. As far as the world knew, Milagro Designs was a small business with one salesperson, Lanie Smith who also made some of the smaller jewelery items; a fictional blacksmith, named Marcus was the person behind all of the weapons and other larger items. It was implied that he was her father and a recluse that refused to meet with people preferring to simply work on his artwork. Mirai had done a good job over the years of creating this myth. It was a habit now to live with her cover. She even reacted to her fake name more readily than her real name.

Her drop off was to a small antique's shop, one of the few orders that was not hunter specific. This store wanted a nice cast iron rack to display their collection of medieval swords. This was the one of the few items not locked under the secret hatch in her trunk as no one would question her on it or the other true art type items she carried. True to her training though, Mirai added some protection charms in the design of everything she did including the sword rack. The wrought iron was the perfect material to create protection from most supernatural creatures. The designs worked into the cross pieces of the stand would simply look decorative to most people. The few who would recognize them would assume it was done to make the piece look more authentic.

Mirai pulled up in front of the store on a little side street in San was impressed that she had managed to find the little shop in the city. Traffic and the multiple tourist gawkers in the area had slowed her down and made her wish she hadn't said yes to this order. She sat a moment in the car, letting "Hate My Life" by Theory of a Deadman play out and soothe her. The little store in a small strip of shops looked like every other antique store she had ever seen. She knew before she even walked in, it would be crammed with delicate pieces of furniture; there would be china figurines, tea cups and plates on every surface; and tons of Tiffany style lamps. She was mostly correct, however near the back end of the store was a wall devoted to various medieval weapons. The shop owner turned out to be a very sweet little old lady who insisted on getting the barber from the shop next door to unload the rack. People had a tendency to underestimate Mirai's strength. Her steady diet of Jameson's and coffee left her on the slender side but the daily work with a 6 pound hammer and chunks of hot steel made her strong. In addition her habit of wearing oversize men's shirts and leather jackets hid most of the bulk in her shoulders and arms. She also trained regularly at Jujitsu. Traveling alone, she needed to depend on herself for safety and sometimes it was better to knock some idiot out rather than drive a 6" blade into their gut or shoot them.

Mirai had changed a lot from her old life. Back then she had been overweight and more of a party girl. She traveled the arts and craft circuit selling mostly jewelry and few custom knives. That day in the coffee shop she had been trying to recover from a wild party the night, well really the entire weekend, before. She had grabbed her Cranberry Orange scone and triple shot Hammerhead, (three shots espresso topped off with very strong black coffee) and had headed over to the only open spot at the long electronics bar. She sat down to play a little bit of Minecraft and catch up on her emails. It was busy as usual and she felt comfortable there, no one looked at you strange and no-one expected any interaction especially with headphones in. Punk music echoed through her ear buds while she constructed another section of her island on Sky Block and then moved to Twitter to catch up on the latest. She had a lot of time to kill so she had shifted to a website on sword making. Early in her life she had lived with a blacksmith and learned a few of the basics to forging and she continued to do so as a part of her business but mostly as a hobby. An older, scarred man was sitting next to her and tapped her on the arm. She almost fell off the stool when she jumped. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to scare you but do you make those?" he asked pointing at the knife on screen.

"I just am a little jumpy, this is like my third triple so sorry a little jumpy, but yes, I do make those, just not quite as pretty. I am still learning some of the tricks." Mirai cursed herself for how crazed she sounded, babbling like an idiot and internally swearing she would cut down on the caffeine and maybe some of the other things she had experimented with that weekend.

"Can you fix them?"

Her answer at that point was life changing. "Yes, I think I can'" she told him, feeling a ridiculous kinship to him when she saw the cranberry scone half-eaten on his plate.

She blinked out of the memory realizing it had been triggered by the sight of the barber who came out to help unload the rack. He had very similar eyes bright blue with lots of laugh lines and the same tightly trimmed ginger beard. He pulled out the stand and hauled it in like it was made of plywood and not cast iron. His flannel shirt and barbers apron disguised what must have been a very strong body. He refused to take any cash for helping, smiling over at the old lady fondly. Mirai realized they must be somehow related so she let it drop.

"Miss Marge, I was hoping you would be able to pay me cash instead." she smiled at the older lady as the woman tried to hand her a handwritten check. "I am headed to San Francisco for a bit of a vacation and it would be so much nicer if I didn't have to stop at a bank."

"Oh, I can't give you cash, think how dangerous it would be for you to carry around all that cash. Why a pretty little slip of a thing like you could end up getting mugged... or worse" came the worried response. The little woman apparently ignored the fact that Mirai was at least 4 inches taller and much bulkier than she was.

"Well, I am a bit stronger than I look, and the blacksmith I work for, Marcus, has given me some self-defense training. I will be staying in a very nice hotel, its the Ritz by the bay and I am sure they will have a safe and are very secure. It's just that it is always such a hassle to cash a check, deal with the debit card and everything else, and then my bank is in Kentucky so they always charge me a fee here. It would be really helpful, but I understand if you can't." Mirai was eventually able convince the woman to pay her in cash. She walked out the door with $5,000, which would fund most of her trip this year. She generally picked out of the way cheaper no-tell motels and basic diners for most of the trip to save funds. This stop was the one exception. She had already planned out her first good meal of the year at Sol Food in San Rafael. She really enjoyed a good Puerto Rican Jibaro and they had some of the best in the area. She would also be staying at a nicer resort as a splurge. Her little home was safe and secluded but it had no bathtub, only a shower and she never managed to get really hot water. She really wanted to have at least one nice jacuzzi tub during her trip.

It felt good to be out on the city streets with the window down and to feel of the rush of air as she cruised the town to the one nice hotel she would stay in this trip as she thought back to the day all of this started.

It had been a perfect spring day in early May, maybe that was why she found herself thinking about it so much today. She had been in Flagstaff, Arizona killing some time before she headed out on another sales trip. She rented a small cabin up there where she would work through the winter to prepare for the craft show season. The man, who said his name was Jeb, explained he had a knife that was something he used quite often and needed a little repair to it. The handle had cracked and blade had some nicks he couldn't just hone out. It seemed basic enough so she agreed to go check it in the parking lot. The parking lot was busy, it was the middle of the afternoon and she felt pretty safe. After all it was just one old guy, plus they liked the same scones. He had an honest face. Looking back now she realized how naive and silly she was back then.

He led the way to a beat up old truck. It was a 1970's Dodge Ram with more dents than paint and looked like it belonged in a junkyard. It made her a little hesitant and she slowed down a bit. He smiled at her, "it's just my hunting truck, sorry I don't tend to care about how it looks since it gets all scratched up in the woods anyway." Although this made sense, she waited by the tail gate anyway, feeling it would be better to be in the open as much as possible, as he went to the cab and got out the knife. It was a simple, single edged, 8" hunting knife with an elk horn hilt but it was inlaid with some intricate silverwork. It looked like he had tried to cut open a steel can with it there were so many nicks and marks on the blade. Mirai looked it over, assessing the damage while he sat on the tailgate watching her.

"I can do this probably just under an hour or so. Do you want to just meet back here?"

"I ain't letting you take that out of my sight, honey. How do I know you won't just drive off with it? My father gave me that blade the day he died."

"Well, it would be stupid of me to take some strange man to my house so never mind, I can't help you" she reached the knife back to him.

"Look this was my father's, please I really want to get it fixed up. Can you maybe work on it somewhere else? Maybe some spot where you would feel safe bringing me?"

"Oh, yes, because their are places with that kind of equipment all over the place. Look, try the kitchen shop downtown, they might know someone."

"I've tried those places, they don't know what they are doing and they want to ship it out somewhere."

"Well, I am sorry but it just seems a bad idea," she started to back away a little. She did feel really bad that she wouldn't be helping him but couldn't think of any way to do it and still be safe.

She turned to walk back to the coffee shop when she saw a sign for the local university. Of course, she remembered, they had a jewelry studio there since they taught classes. One of her friends was even taking a class there so maybe she could use the studio there. It would be public and therefore still safe. She turned around to see the old guy getting ready to back out.

"Hey, she yelled at him since his window was rolled down.

"Yep"

"I think I know a way, let me call a buddy of mine and we can maybe do this at the university."

Her friend was working on something in that studio and was thrilled to have Mirai come and help her out. She gave the guy directions and agreed to meet him there in an hour. That way she would have time to help her friend Jennifer first.

It took a little less than an hour to fix all the nicks in the blade, the handle had to be replaced but she had a similar bone so it went pretty smoothly. As she worked she thought about how much the man must of loved his father and how much love the blade carried especially with his father giving it to him on his death bed. She found herself singing a little chant like song she had heard her foster father use when he was working. "panav Adonai yisa ratson yehi ken". Later she would learn this was from a Hebrew priestly blessing that meant May the Lord lift up His face, yes may it be his will". At the time it was just part of how she learned to make things. Overall she was very proud of her handy work when she finished. It gleamed in the sunlight to the point it almost looked like the silver was glowing.

"Here you go Jeb, but really, with a blade this pretty, maybe you should just use it for show, I mean the silverwork will eventually get ruined if you keep opening steel cans with it." She thought she heard him say something about the silver was important for killing shifters but it was muttered under his breath and she wasn't sure. Out loud he just laughed and said he would remember to avoid the cans from now on. He handed her a $100 bill. She tried to hand him back the money, she really had just done it out of boredom and she admired and even envied people who had family. Her own mother had abandoned her at a fire station here in town with a note pinned to her blanket that read, "This is my little Mirai, please find someone who can take care of her." That's where she got her name, Mirai Highland her first name from the note and her last name from the fire station she was dumped at. He fought her over it and finally she agreed to let him buy her dinner that night instead. She just felt she could trust him, maybe if she had chosen the blueberry muffin she wouldn't have but it was too late, decisions were made and she had to live with them.

They met at a small restaurant called Tacos Los Altos, it was a popular college hangout so she knew it would be busy. Trust only took her so far, she hadn't had a perfect life so she was at least a little careful especially as the after effects of her drug weekend slowly faded from her system. Jeb turned out to be a fun dinner companion. He said he was a traveling salesman and had all sorts of fun stories about being on the road and the various places he had been and things he had seen. Since she traveled so much to different art shows to sell her work they ended up having a lot in common. After dinner he walked her to her car. He was very much like she would have wanted a grandfather to be. Her van was parked under a streetlamp, but just her luck the light was burnt out so her van sat in a puddle of darkness. She could see Jebs truck parked just a few spaces away. As they approached her van he suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him. She was about to protest when she saw the figure coming out of the shadow next to her van. It was a man, but something was wrong, his eyes weren't human. They were black, all black, no whites, no Irises, nothing but black. In that moment she realized that what she was looking at was pure evil.

"So Jeb, you found a new little friend, don't you remember what happened to the last one? She was delicious, this one is a whole lot plumper, in fact, I think you have brought me a full meal for a change" The voice was dripping with cold pure hatred. She had never met anyone that scared her down to the bone the way this man did, she started to pull back planning on running, no plan as to where, just away, but in a heartbeat the creep appeared in front of her. He grabbed her by the chin and pulled her face close in to his. She knew in that minute this was it, her first thought was that she didn't want to die in some crappy parking lot, a moment later she was watching the guys face erupt in a bright gold light as he screamed. Jeb was behind the guy with the hunting knife she had repaired dripping blood as he pulled it out of the creeps back. The body that fell to the ground suddenly seemed very human and the eyes were normal, not black at all, in fact they were a very pale blue and he looked so young laying there dead at her feet. Jeb took a step toward her and she took a step back.

"You killed him? He's dead! Oh shit, what have I gotten into, don't get near me, get away!"

"Shh you silly girl, he would have tortured you just for fun and kept you alive only long enough to steal your soul, I saved your ass and if you aren't quiet you are going to get us both sent to jail. I can't protect you there. They will be after you now, dammit I am sorry I didn't realize you were a "Smith" I thought you were just a normal person. What the hell did you do with my knife, I have never seen a simple blade kill a demon like that."

"I am just a normal person and you killed someone in front of me! I didn't do anything to your knife, what do you mean demon? How crazy are you?" She screeched, still in shock as he dragged the body to the side of the nearest vehicle.

"Look, you trusted me before, all I am asking is for you to trust me a little bit longer let me get you someplace safe and I will explain all of this. Please, I don't want to be responsible for your death."

Something in his voice, or maybe it was the memory of the orange fire, or maybe it was the glowing silver on the knife, or maybe it was insanity setting in, but something made her agree. She climbed into his beater and gave him directions to her house. He took more twists and turns than she had ever seen anyone do. The normal 20 minute drive ending up taking over an hour. She sat huddled next to the door still in shock. He assured her he was just driving around a bit to keep someone from following them. As they got out at her cabin, she started to have second thoughts but figured in for a penny, in for a pound. Maybe once she was in the house she could come up with a plan.

He seemed to realize she was still nervous and kept his distance following her into the house and sitting down at the kitchen table. the cabin was only about 300 sq feet so it was all combined into one room, bedroom, kitchen and living room. Even with her nerves, she noticed he had picked the only chair that had a view of both doors and all the large windows. She immediately began making coffee. The process soothed her nerves even as she ground the coffee in her little hand grinder she was realizing how odd it was she had just watched a man get stabbed and that his eyes seemed to burn bright orange and now she was making coffee for the killer. It must be the shock she thought; why else would I have seen that? She would play nice until she could sneak a call to 911, that's it. She made a triple shot in her Aero Press and split it out between two cups, snagging the bottle of stolen whiskey out of the cabinet to help soothe her nerves, who knows maybe she could get him drunk and then slip out to safety.

Here in her kitchen she realized she must have imagined the black eyes, the evil voice, it was just a mugger and this guy had killed him. The bright orange cabinets made the darkness of the night seem to fade. She sat down as far from him as possible and as close to the phone as possible. He was watching her closely, so she forced herself to sit still and listen to his story. Years later she would wonder what her life would have been if she had ignored him and just dialed 911. It was that night that she learned demons were real, as were shape shifters, vampires and a myriad of other ghoulies.

Jeb told her he was a Hunter, and his family had always pursued evil and killed it. She nodded her head thinking he was crazier and crazier as the night went on. When he told her she was special, something called a Smith, a natural at creating weapons to kill these creatures she couldn't help but laugh. "Now I know you are over the deep end. I am an artist, I make pretty things to sell, that's it. This knife work stuff is just something fun I picked up from one of my foster fathers, nothing else."

"This blade was just a knife, until you fixed it! Can't you see it glowing, you did something to silverwork, and now it's special, special enough to banish a demon. You are special, and you are in danger. Now that one knows about you the rest will hear of it. They will hunt you down and either kill you or turn you. Everyone you know is in danger. They will use them to get to you and sooner or later they will get you unless you listen to me. I know another Smith, he can help you, he can train you and teach you how to be safe."

She was ready to ignore him when the window behind him exploded inward and something not quite human crawled through. Jeb leaped across the small kitchen and drove the knife into it's chest and the creature exploded into flames.

Moments later she followed him out to the truck with the house burning down behind her. She would be declared dead as they never were able to identify the bones found in the burnt out kitchen. He explained it would be best if her family thought her lost forever. She and they would be safer. He didn't know at the time that she had no family so there really was no loss there.

She pulled out of her daydream to the sound of a car honking. The light had changed and she hadn't moved. She hit the gas and peeled out heading the rest of the short way to her hotel. The memory and all the ones that followed it changed her dinner plans. All she wanted was a hot bath and a soft bed.

While she soaked in the hot water she thought back to that trip and meeting this infamous Smith that Jeb was speaking about. They drove almost non-stop to Berea, Kentucky, filling up the truck at out of the way truck stops and eating food on the run. In less than 30 hours they were in the small town. Mirai was familiar with Berea as it was a hub for arts and crafts festivals. Just down a quiet neighborhood street they pulled up in front of typical southern home with a large wrap around porch. This place had a huge lawn and a white picket fence with a picturesque tree in the middle. Mirai looked at Jeb like he had gone crazy. What the hell was she going to do living in some white suburbia dream?

She was exhausted, frightened and beginning to question why she let him drag her all this way. The events of the day before were already fading and she was regretting this decision. As she climbed out of the truck she could see a figure stepping out onto the dawnlit porch. She couldn't believe it, it was Marcus. Marcus had been the one foster parent she actually really liked. He had been the one that had taught her about forging steel and trained her to make jewelery and knives. She ran up the porch steps and gave him a huge bear hug realizing that life was about to get better. She smiled at the memory of that gruff bear of a man hugging her back in those early morning hours. She climbed out of the cold bath trying hard to hold onto that good memory. It didn't really work, that night she slept fitfully and woke to a pounding headache. Oh well a day of staring at classic cars would do her some good, she thought.


	2. Chapter 2

The car show was exactly what she had hoped for. Lots of beautiful cars and no one paying much attention to a dark haired woman in an over-sized coat. It was still cool enough weather that she didn't look out of place wearing it. The black leather hid the silhouette of the Beretta and knife she carried everywhere. The pockets held her flask of holy water and the iron filings and salt mixture she kept for protection. Her life had changed considerably and she was no longer the naive girl that felt safe enough to walk out to a parking lot with a stranger. She had learned that too many of the evils of this world could disguise themselves as something safe or even sweet. Even here she was aware of the people around her always watching for anything that seemed out of place. She hadn't had to face a real fight in years but she was convinced she would be able to handle anything that came at her. That confidence gave her a more forceful walk. In many ways it worked to defend her against normal human attacks. Most criminals would avoid confrontation with someone who carried themselves confidently.

She spent the day wandering in the spring sunshine among over 100 different classic cars. There was even a 1930's Model T and an out-of-this-world Bugatti. In all it was a day of peace and a great start to her trip. San Rafael was generally very safe at this time since even demons avoided messing with that many rich people or they were the rich people, Mirai was never sure which. The crowds weren't too heavy and she felt herself adjusting nicely back to living among and dealing with people. Her eyes were always alert watching all around her but no worse than any other young woman walking alone and nothing seemed too out of place. She had parked her car at the edge of the show and walked up to it in the late afternoon air to find a crowd of mostly younger men trailing respectfully around it discussing what they thought might be under the hood and hoping the owner would let them take a peek. Many showed a great deal of surprise as she walked up and unlocked the passenger door to throw her canvas backpack in.

"Come on Mamacita, show us your boyfriends car, won't you?" one younger Latino looking man called out to her as she shut the door.

"Hm, well when I get a boyfriend, I'll do just that", she smiled.

Most of them stepped back a bit, thinking they probably weren't going to see the car now as she opened the driver door but Mr. Machismo wasn't going to let something like a girl stop him from getting what he wanted.

"Come on, let me get a look under the hood, if you know how to open it", he smirked. Normally she would have just ignored him and driven away but since she was going to be out and about and considering most of the car crowd would be hitting the same places she did she decided to pop the hood.

"All right, you can see under the hood but the first idiot with a chain hanging of his pocket that scratches my baby will be in for a world of hurt."

She kept the trunk and the doors locked but went up to the front of the car. She had to admit she really did love showing off her car but the engine was the only safe area to show. She got bombarded with questions, most of them assuming she must be driving her daddy's car or just bought it for the color.

Mr. Latino took that tack at first, " So what do you have under here, a 390?" he smiled at her. Like many men he wanted to prove his superiority. This happened to her a lot. They would ask something under the assumption she would either say, I don't know, or would agree with them. Then they would turn it around and tell her what was really under the hood. Like that was going to get them a date?

"You realize that a 390 is a Ford engine, right? This here is the muscle car by which all other muscle cars should be judged. Nope, this baby has a 455 cu. in. V8 with a 3-speed manual. Of course this one may or may not be modded out in some way or another but since that wouldn't be street legal I really won't say," she smiled back.

Now the crowd was impressed, even Mr. Latino backed off a bit. She could hear one or two comments in the back along the lines of damn she's old but she knows cars. Inwardly she cringed, 35 was not old but hey, she knew she was at least 10 years older than the oldest of them.

"Now, I really need to get out of here. There is a really impressive Bugatti in the car show you should all go check out. After all this is just my daily driver, theirs are truly for show." She slid in, cranked the stereo which happened to switch at that point to a AC/DC's Big Balls, and backed slowly out of the lot. She wondered what fate was trying to tell her as Brian Johnson bragged about the size of his balls. Maybe her theory about the music was wrong, then again seeing the way Mr. Latino stared at her as she pulled out maybe it was warning her about the arrogant young man. She drove around a while to ensure she wasn't being followed and then returned to her hotel to change for dinner. She decided that she might want a drink or two with dinner so she had the hotel call her a taxi and headed our for some Cuba Libras and Puerto Rican food. After dinner she moved to one of the local clubs and found herself on the dance floor for the first time in many years. Around 2 AM she was standing in the taxi line exhausted but somehow energized at the same time. When she was young she would have never danced like that. There were even a few young men she thought about taking back to the room but then common sense took over. Her life wasn't conducive to romance. She did encounter several of the people she had seen at the car show including Mr. Latino who appeared to be chatting up a young blonde. Maybe he wasn't the arrogant one, she should have known he wasn't really interested in her.

Once back in the hotel she locked up the doors, laid a line of salt at the doors and windows and then fell into a deep sleep. The alcohol she had drunk was not proof against the nightmares this night. A few hours into the night she began kicking at the sheets, mewling in her sleep as she relived the last time she saw Marcus.

Smoke filled the house forcing her to cough even through the t-shirt she had pulled over her mouth and nose. Her eyes were watering so much she couldn't really see but she was determined to make her way to Marcus. Her knee was throbbing from crashing into the coffee table and she could no longer feel her left arm. She still couldn't figure out how they had found the house. They should have been safe. Marcus had been fighting in the back of the house the last she had seen him so she headed that way, crawling through the hallway under a ceiling of flames to get to the back room where they kept most of their finished stock. The smoke seemed thinner in the back room and she closed the door behind her to keep it that way Across the slightly hazy room she thought she could see Marcus fighting against the last remaining creature. This one looked all too human. He was much too strong to be normal though. Marcus was at almost 6 inches taller and outweighed him by at least 50 pounds and this guy had slammed Marcus into a wall like it was nothing. Mirai grabbed for a knife only to drop it as it burned her hand. The creature turned and smiled at her at that point. She lunged for one of the spears instead, as Marcus got a good swing in, knocking the creature back. She grabbed the spear and began to launch herself into the fight heedless of her own safety. She felt the spear make contact and looked up to see the creature pull her Father's heart out of his chest. Even as the spear drove into it's flesh it laughed with a childlike glee and disappeared. She dropped down next to her Father's still body and put her head down on his bloody chest. Suddenly she felt very tired and started to drift away.

Mirai woke up screaming, afraid to look at her hands convinced they would be covered in blood. For a few moments she was back in the field where she had woken after losing her father. To this day, she had no idea how she got from that smoke filled room to a grassy park in another state.

A banging on her hotel room door pulled her fully into the present. She peeked through the peephole at the hotel clerk. She cracked the door open to his very nervous smile. "Excuse me, ma'am, but we had reports of someone screaming in here."

"I am sorry, I just had a nightmare. silly really."

"Oh, well, if you need help. please call down." He was blushing, and she realized she had answered the door in nothing but a short t-shirt. She smiled at him and closed the door fully, giggling at the young man's embarrassed look.

Mirai reset the salt line and settled down into the sofa. Sleep was out of the question so she turned on the TV to watch something light and stupid. She smiled as Dr. Sexy, MD came on. This was her best kept secret, her love of this ridiculous soap opera. By 8:00 she was finally relaxed and mostly over the dream.

Today was her last day before heading further south on her way to the La Jolla Arts festival. After that she would head off east through Arizona. Her home state still held a special place in her heart so she always made sure to take a stop or two there before heading out to the east coast. She swept up the salt into some sandwich baggies, packed up her stuff and headed down for a late breakfast. The California sun finished clearing the remnants of the dream from her head as she enjoyed a perfect omelet.

The short drive to San Francisco was filled with tourist traffic, reminding her why she normally avoided the city but she just couldn't resist driving the Golden Gate Bridge. The slow traffic allowed her to enjoy the view of the bay and the city ahead. On a whim she decided to stay over in Frisco for a day or two. She had a lot of leeway in her schedule and it had been years since she had visited the city. She decided she would play tourist just like she had pretended she would to get Marge to give her cash instead of a check.

She found a room at the Queen Anne Hotel which was a little out of the way but convenient to a secure parking garage. Even with all the extra security she had added, her car was a magnet for car thieves and thugs so she made sure to find safe places for it whenever she went to a city. After getting her baby settled into a secure spot she headed out on foot to explore the City. Chinatown was about a two mile walk. She enjoyed the sights and sounds of the city and all the crazy people around her on the way. The mid-afternoon sun was a little too warm for the jacket but she didn't want to switch around her gun and everything else so she suffered through it. She wandered in and out of little shops and coffee houses along the way to cool off. The crowds were a little overwhelming at times so she put in her headphones and tuned out most of them. Along the way she detoured slightly to stop at the Old Cathedral of Saint Mary.

She wasn't religious but she found herself drawn to holy places. Every chance she had she would stop off and visit old churches, ancient Native American sacred sites, small temples, chapels, and anything consecrated or sacred. She stepped in the cool dark interior of the Cathedral and made her way to the votive candles in the side alcove. One of her foster families had been Catholic. She initially hated to be dragged into the church every Sunday. That foster mom, Maria, Lupita, something like that, had taken her to the votives one Sunday after service and taught her about lighting the candles as prayers for people. Ever since then she would try to stop at a church or shrine and if possible light a few candles. Before she met Marcus she would light one for her Mother that she used to dream of meeting again someday. As she had grown older this changed and she added different people or prayers in until she settled on her current routine about 8 years ago. She knelt before the votive stand and lit a small votive, whispering "for Marcus", then a second, whispering "for mother" and then a third and final one, whispering "for hope". She would do this at every church, sending out a small prayer for her foster father, heck the only father she ever really had. The second was for the mother who dumped her off at that fire station in Flagstaff, Arizona. The last because of how dark the world was and she felt she owed something to the world and hope was all she could think of. She dropped a few coins in the donation bin along with a small St. Dunstan's medallion and then stepped back out into the chaos and bright light of afternoon sun. The quiet of the Church stayed with her as she meandered through the late afternoon crowds.

A few blocks later she was dodging little old Chinese ladies and their evil elbows as she wondered through all the shops and restaurants in the area. She did find some ingredients for potion bags that were pretty rare so she picked those up as well as a tote bag to haul it all in. Dinner was from a little back alley stall that sold dumplings and noodles. She headed back to her room amidst crowds of revelers in various outfits and states of sobriety. A few times she felt someone was following her but when she looked around no one stood out. She took a few side streets and dodged around a bit before returning to her little hotel. By the time she reached the front door the feeling of being watched had disappeared. She knocked it up to being in a crowd and headed off to bed.

It seemed to be only seconds after falling asleep she was in that field again. The smell of the wet grass was strong and almost overpowered the smell of blood and smoke on her. She looked around and didn't see a soul. It was just before dawn and she had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. She was still in her pajamas, barefoot with one sock. She cleaned up best she could in the little pond near where she had woken up, finger combed her hair and went in search of anything that would tell her where she was. She came across trash can with a newspaper thrown away on top. Lawrence, Kansas... how did she end up here when she started out in Kentucky? She went in search of a shelter. Living in the system had taught her early on that if you look relatively clean and young, these places would always find a way to help. At 23 she still looked around 17 so she was able to convince them she was a runaway. Sure enough the man running the shelter took her inside, gave her some clothes, shoes, breakfast, a ride to the Greyhound station and bought the ticket for her trip back. She had convinced him she had followed some young man there and had ended up getting dumped by him, literally on the side of the road.

The 8 hour bus ride gave her time to decide it must all be a dream. She figured it was some kind of LSD flashback or something like that from her days of drug experimentation. Six hours into the trip she determined out how to approach Marcus and figured it would all end up okay. Marcus had a history of his own and was pretty understanding. All of those plans were thrown out the window when she got home. There were still fire trucks parked out front and some kind of special police officer picking through the ruins. A The officer was much nicer than she had expected any cop to be as he told her that her father was dead. He even held her while she cried. What she had thought was a drug induced dream turned out to be a very real nightmare.

"We need to ask you about the room that didn't fully burn. It looked like it was filled with weapons. We found Marcus there. He had been hurt."

"Hurt?" she had to pretend to be confused and not blurt out what the hell do you mean hurt, he had is heart ripped out. Instead she asked if they meant his workshop.

"Workshop?"

"Yes, he was a blacksmith, he made all sorts of decorative items like fancy swords or knives or replicas of various items for of the forge and the type of things he worked with, it had some kind of special fireproofing and stuff" she played a little dumb, finding it easy to convince most men that she was just a silly girl. Of course she wouldn't be able to fake her age with these guys but a lot of men tended to underestimate women when it came to things like this.

"Oh, well that explains the weapons we found, but do you have any idea who would hurt him? Did he have any enemies?"

"No, Marcus was loved by everyone. He kept to himself, worked on the things he loved and never hurt anyone. Only a monster could have done this to him." Mirai started crying so they would leave her alone.

"Where were you?" he shifted tactics in response to her waterworks, not quite what she had hoped for.

"Me, I ... I ran away. I was in Lawrence, KS. It was stupid, I followed a boy out there, I thought he loved me and so I followed him there... he dumped me... and kicked me out of the motel room. I didn't even have shoes.. and now Marcus is dead and it's my fault... I wasn't here, if I had been here maybe he would be alive still.. and it was stupid..." She went on a bit like this between sniffles and sobs eventually giving him the business card from the guy at the shelter. Whatever or whoever had dropped her off in Kansas had not only saved her life. They had likely saved her from going to jail on this one. Now they assumed she could not have been anywhere near the house so she was no longer a suspect. The officer had one of the rookie cops drive her to a local women's shelter while everything got worked out with the insurance. The only things that survived the fire had been the weapons and forge area and Marcus's beat up van.

Mirai woke with a start so some noise outside her room. She lay quietly in the bed holding the pistol in one had and her silver knife in another as the noise moved further down the hall and turned out to be one of the other guests stumbling in after a late night of drinking. She fell back into a fitful but thankfully dreamless sleep.

The next morning, sitting in the little breakfast nook, Mirai overheard a couple at the next table discussing a trip to Alcatraz. They were very excited about touring the old prison and seeing all the infamous cells. Their excitement convinced her to go. She had been to Frisco many times and had never seen Alcatraz. Even the ferry ride sounded interesting. It was the wrong time of year for whales apparently but there was the possibility of seeing dolphins instead. She was very intrigued with being normal for a while. Well as normal as she would ever get to be.

Even with that desire, Mirai felt a little ridiculous playing tourist. She left behind her knife and switched her wallet to one with law enforcement ID and her concealed carry permit. These were real ID's, she had helped out an regional director in the FBI with some weapons who in turn had given Mirai an ID... well actually it was Lanie that had the ID and a concealed carry permit. This way she could get through the security checkpoints and other areas without any hassle.

She walked to the trolley car station shortly after breakfast and ended up riding with the couple to the ferry station. They didn't seem to recognize her from the hotel and she was happy to leave it that way. The ferry ride was truly relaxing. She relished the feel of the ocean breeze as they chopped across the waves to the island. Alcatraz was not what she had expected. There were some ghosts there, she was sensitive to that now, but none seemed strong enough to act out their vengeance and most seemed to know to avoid her. The tour was a lot more fun than she expected and it turned out she enjoyed pretending to be a tourist for a while. She ended up chatting with a a woman that ran a small new age occult shop near Dolores park and made arrangements to stop by the next morning and show her some items. The most amazing part was, she had a few hours where she got to feel like a normal person. She imagined what it must be like for all the people on the tour with her who believed ghost stories were just for fun. People who would go home to their quiet suburban homes and return to their safe but boring jobs as accountants or shop keepers. Somewhere deep inside she knew that would never be the life for her although she would enjoy not having to worry about demons trying to eat her heart.

Dinner that night was from a food cart outside a little liquor store. Mirai picked up some street tacos, a bottle of whiskey and a gaming magazine. She was going to enjoy a nice quiet dinner in her room, read something useless and fun and drink herself into oblivion. She managed the first two but ended up falling asleep long before she drank enough to drown her dreams.

No matter what she did, the night of the fire kept coming back. She woke up the neighbors screaming again. This really needed to stop. This guy actually insisted on checking the room or he was going to call the cops. He raised his eyes at the slightly scattered salt but didn't say anything. She wondered what kind of strange things he had encountered before. Once he was sure no one was dead he left her alone and went to apologize for her to the couple in the next room. She quietly cleaned up the salt, packed her bags and left.

She found a little 24 hour diner down the way and went in for breakfast and sat there for a while sipping coffee. The diner was filled with cops either coming on or off duty and was otherwise quiet. She still didn't fully trust cops but had learned to just ignore them. If you were quiet and didn't seem to notice them they pretty much left you alone. Around 8:00 she headed to Dolores park. She had a tote bag with a few different new age looking items. All of them had protection charms built in. Light weight type spells but enough to help people. The owner of the shop loved the items. She knew her stuff too, she recognized many of the symbols Mirai had used and was thrilled to buy the whole set. Mirai gave her one of her internet company cards and was looking forward to repeat sales. At this rate she would have to stop her sales run early. After she finished up there arranging for payment to go to her paypal account under Milagro Designs, she headed back to her car. It was time to get out of the city. She had enough of city and tourist life. It was time to move on. Last night had reminded her she would never be normal.

The roads were backed up all the way to San Miguel. She didn't get to drive over 35 until then. By the time she hit the outskirts of San Miguel she was ready to pull out her Berretta and start blasting away at every idiot in front of her. Instead she pulled into the town of Paso Robles and decided to find a cheap motel to crash for the night and start out fresh before dawn. The nearest place she could find was the Farmers Motel. This place made flophouses look like the Ritz but it was cheap, had rooms and a lot of parking.

It was around 4 pm so Mirai took the opportunity to run over to the Mission before it closed. She paid the small visitors fee and meandered around the old Mission ending up in the chapel. She approached the sanctuary and dropped some coins and another St. Dunstan's medal into the box. She grabbed a slender piece of balsa and lit it from the central candle. Once again she repeated her prayers.

In a somber mood, Mirai headed back to the motel. She figured she would sleep until about 3 am and avoid the traffic she had hit during the day. The drive went much smoother although she did miss the scenery. La Jolla was packed, of course, she hadn't thought things through and pulled in right in the middle of rush hour. She fought her way through traffic down to festival grounds. She had arranged for a booth to be set up for her. She knew it would be better to drive a van or a pickup so she could haul more stuff, but really, she just couldn't see herself driving something crappy after getting her baby. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about moving tables, chairs, canopies and those kind of things around. If she kept this up she would have to consider getting a business partner. Maybe one of Marcus' other students would be able to partner up. She would have to think about it. Maybe she could even team up with a hunter, then she would have protection as well.

The open field packed with various tents, booths and the myriad of people made her nervous. She hated these things but they made excellent cover for her trips. It took several trips to move the flat jewelry trays to her assigned spot. For shows like this she would sell various blessed necklaces, amulets and charms. Most had a slight occult look but were generally more pretty than anything else. She set up fairly quickly. She didn't bother with elaborate displays or fancy signs, trusting her work to sell itself. She kept a tray of special items under the table in case a hunter stopped by. Many of them knew this was her first official stop of the year. She was kept very busy over the next several days.

On the last day she started packing up some things early, figuring she would get set to be able to rush out as soon as the show was over. She sold a small charm at a huge discount to a little boy who was looking for a gift for his mother. She normally marked all of her prices up during this show and taking a loss on one item wouldn't matter. The boy had looked so hopeful and then crestfallen when he learned the price that she gave him it for less than cost. This was actually a more powerful charm that would bring safety to the family. As he walked away she noticed a lanky figure heading her way. "Oh crap," she muttered under her breath. It was Garth. Of all the hunters to cross her path this late in the day it had to be Garth. He was nice enough and did spend a lot of money on her stuff but that much nerdness was a little too much.

She put on her game face, hoping she could get rid of him quickly.

"Hey pretty lady," he smiled at her. Their was something almost charming in his attempts to be so smooth.

"Hi Garth"

"I am looking for something special. Can we meet later?"

"Well, I need to head out tonight, I have a few things here, maybe I have something that'll work for you."

Garth looked behind him to make sure no one was around and leaned in to whisper in her ear, "I need something for a shifter."

"Long, short, curved, straight, double edged?"

"Damn, girl, you really do have it all don't you?"

"Well, it is my business."

Mirai pulled out her tray of blessed silver knives. Garth picked out a 10" Bowie style and handed her $1,000 in cash.

"You know, maybe you don't have to rush off. We could maybe go have a beer?" he smiled down at her.

"Oh, Garth, that's awful sweet but I don't ever mix business and pleasure and I do need to get down the road. There's a little shop in Quartzite, AZ waiting for a very special delivery," She smiled sweetly as she packed up the last of her items. She did end up accepting his help to her car. Of all the hunters she sold to, Garth was the only one that still seemed fully human to her. The rest seemed scarred by what they had seen, colder, darker, not really human anymore. Garth for all his geekiness was still human to her so she always tried to let him down gently. He tipped his hat in his normal gallant fashion as she pulled out of the lot.

The night air was cool as she headed down I-8 toward the California/Arizona border. She kept the windows down the whole way, singing along to Blue Oyster Cult she followed the moonlight down the highway. Quartzite was a crazy little town in the middle of the desert. In the winter it was packed to the gills with RVs and campers filled with old people escaping the cold midwest winters. During the summer it died down to almost a ghost town. In late spring like this it was halfway in between. Mirai pulled into a small campground, paid her fee and spread out her sleeping bag for the night. The Cactus Patch RV Park had a pool, showers, and a little shop. It wasn't her favorite way to stay but there weren't a whole lot of options in this pissy little town. Mirai hated this town. It was always dusty hot and filled with old people. Old people freaked her out. They talked too loud, smelled funny, and were just generally freaky.

The owner of the Roadrunner Rocks Shop had special ordered a half a dozen carved rabbits. Why rabbits, Mirai had no idea, but the owner was willing to pay top dollar so she went ahead and carved him some rabbits. She had spent most of the month of February working on them. Carving each small block of marble into a nearly lifelike rabbit. They seemed to leap up from the box they were sitting in as she set them on his counter. It was in her blood to create weapons but creating artwork was what she really lived for.

"These are so much more than I expected. The artist you represent is beyond a master, " the man's face lit up as he gazed on the little rabbits.

These moments brought joy to Mirai, so much of her work was used to kill things it was good to have some items that were for fun only. He gave her $5,000 more than she had originally asked. This one she took a check from. She would have to find a bank at some point to deposit it into her business account. As soon as she had the check, she headed out towards Tucson. There was a small church there that was headed by a hunter. He was always good for a few sales and information.


	3. Chapter 3

Sam and Dean were heading down to San Rafael, CA following a lead on a monster attack. Something had attacked several people in an antique shop. Luckily there was a hunter next door who managed to injure it with an iron axe before it killed anyone but the creature was still out there running loose.

Sam hated going to California. It brought back too many memories but this was something they needed to do. At least they were staying north of Stanford. He wouldn't have to drive those streets or run into any of Jess's friends. The Impala was running a little ragged but Dean kept pushing on. The last few weeks had been one hunt after another and she was getting a little beaten. Dean hated to push his baby like this but they were on a hunt so no one got to rest not even the car. As they drove through northern California, he glanced over at his brother often. He worried about Sam having to come back to California. It had been a few years but the memory of Jess seemed to still haunt his brother. He hoped this trip would be a quick hunt and they could head back to the midwest and away from the memories.

The antique store they were headed to was was run by a little old lady named Marge Dempsey. Dean was prepared to send his brother in first to calm down her nerves. His baby brother had always been good at playing nice to the old ladies. Maneuvering the Impala through the narrow streets kept him distracted until they managed to find parking just a block away from the shop. The short walk allowed him to clear his head and focus on the hunt. He always felt best when he could be focused on a hunt. This is what he was meant to do. It's what he knew best and allowed him to keep all the other fears and problems out of his head.

When they stepped into the shop, it was still crowded with law enforcement officers. Dean and Sam flashed their FBI badges to the officer at the door and were sent directly in. They were expecting to find a hysterical old crying lady and mess of blood and bones. What they got was an old lady cussing out the chief of police and a whole bunch of broken furniture. There was very little blood and no bones.

"You little useless mausscheiss I know what I saw and it wasn't some stupid little latino gang banger. Now you need to get these little boys playing at cops out of my shop and let me clean up this mess. You too, pretty boy" she yelled at Dean as he moved to look at a rack of medieval swords. The rack was covered in symbols he half recognized and he wanted a closer look.

Dean turned in amazement as he realized this little old lady had emptied the shop of cops in less than thirty seconds and was a far cry from the hysterical crying woman he expected. She had hold of a broom and looked like she was ready to swing it at the next person she came across.

"Ma'am, we just have a few questions" Sam smiled with that little puppy look he had perfected so many years ago.

"Don't ma'am me, just get your useless butts out of here, and watch those gargantuan feet of yours young man. I have enough broken stuff as it is."

"Miss Marge, these are boys I was telling you about," smiled a young stocky man at the door. He was wearing a barbers smock. This was the hunter that had called them in.

"Hey Jeremiah, long time no see" smiled Dean glad he could turn away from the old lady who looked about ready to come at them with that broom.

"Jeremiah Strong, I told you I didn't want any stupid police messing with my business, I really don't want some useless govmt agents tripping all over their oversized clown feet," she glared at Sam as one of his clodhopper size shoes snapped an already broken chair leg on his way toward the door.

Both of the boys stepped over behind Jeremiah, and Dean had to curse under his breath as he realized they were hiding behind the other hunter. Jeremiah's laugh told him he had figured it out too. Great just great, thought Dean, now they would be the laughing stock of the hunters. They would never live this one down.

"Miss Marge, these boys are as much Feebs, as I am a barber."

"Hmmph well ifin they are hunters then I guess we can let them help out," she grumbled and lowered the broom. At closer glance, Sam realized the broom had an iron handle. This was no normal antique shop. Dean meanwhile was wandering back over to a rack of swords. Figures his brother would gravitate to the most obvious weapons in the place. Well, he would just have to piece together what was happening while Dean did... well whatever it was Dean did.

"So ma'am, can you tell me what you saw?" he smiled at her again.

"Don't ma'am me you smarmy little boy. Sit your butt down, on that chair over there, so your giant body won't break anything else, and I'll tell you what I saw."

Marge was still spitting fire at the whole situation and Sam figured it would be best if he just shut up and did what she said. He settled gingerly into the only non-antique chair in the building and didn't say another word. Marge's eyes followed him into the chair. She then spun around and whacked Dean on the arm with her broom. "Don't you dare touch those swords young man. You go stand next to your partner there and listen up." Dean rubbed his arm, who would have thought the old lady could swing a metal broom handle that hard.

"Oh and none of that kissing or hand holding. I don't have a problem with you gays as long as you don't kiss in front of me."

Now it was Dean's turn to sputter as he moved over to his brother. "I... we.. that's my brother you old bag" he spit out at her.

"Oh, well you looked awful sweet on each other. What else would you expect me to think? And just who do you think you are calling old bag. I have half a mind to turn you both over my knee" Dean fought to keep the smile from his face as he mentally pictured this tiny woman with Sam over her lap. She couldn't have been more than 5' tall but she seemed to make up for it in meanness. He straightened up and sat still when he caught the glare she was sending his way though.

"Well anyway, time for you to shut up and listen. I don't want to repeat myself all day. Hopefully one of you is smarter than you look." she began to explain all that happened early that morning. "I opened up as usual. I finally finished setting out all of the medieval swords onto my new display rack when that thing walked in the room. It smelled like evil distilled. It looked like a wolf, but was much larger than any other wolf I have ever seen. It lunged at me, knocking me over that beautiful settee", she pointed at the mangled couch looking thing near the back of the shop. "It must have thought I was dead because it turned on the others. That's when Jeremiah burst in with that axe of his. He fought it back and forth, destroying half my stuff in the process and then it ran out the door. I am sure it was injured but it acted like nothing had hit it."

Jeremiah jumped in at this point,"I felt my axe connect. It was a solid hit but you would have thought I had tapped it with a butter knife. It was much bigger than any wolf or werewolf I have ever encountered. It didn't move quite right though, as if it wasn't quite used to being on four legs so kind of like a shifter but it didn't react like any shifter I have come across."

Both of them started wracking their brains. This didn't sound like anything they had encountered before either. Jeremiah was an experienced hunter so he would have recognized most things.

"Do you remember anything else? any kind of weird feelings, smells, anything?" Dean asked looking at Marge.

"It weren't no demon if that's what you think,or any other creature like that. If'n I knew what it was, I wouldn't have let Jeremiah call you. That boy, just has to stick his nose in all the time. Thinks I can't handle anything." she kept muttering under her breath for a moment until the boys asked her if they could look around a bit.

"You, pretty boy," she pointed at Dean, "can look around but don't touch anything. I will be watching you. As for you you, Jolly green giant, you can help Jeremiah move the bigger things out back. Just mind your step, and watch your head" she pointed at Sam as he just barely missed cracking his skull on one of the 20 hanging lamps. Dean kind of liked this old lady. She was tough as nails and not quite as creepy as other old people. Plus she realized he was the better looking one, even if she kept calling him pretty.

Dean searched the store for all the normal signs but didn't come across any. There was no sulfur, no hex bags, nothing that they normally looked for. The EMF might as well have been junk it didn't pick up a thing. Dean did look closer at the rack of swords. The symbols all turned out to protection symbols. Probably whoever made it simply copied some old symbols to make it look right. It did look pretty solid though and had him thinking about some different ways he could store some of their weapons. He helped Old Lady Marge, as he started thinking of her, with a few more items that needed to be cleaned up and then headed out back to find Sam.

He found his little brother leaned up against the back wall of the barber shop drinking down a cold beer laughing at something Jeremiah was saying. For just a moment, looking at his kid brother smiling in the late California sunshine, he caught sight of the little boy Sammy used to be. It was good to see him smiling again. The last few years had been rough on both of them. They had been thinking of taking a break to try to recover from everything they had been through lately, when the call from Jeremiah had come in. They both owed Jeremiah a lot and it wasn't often that an experienced hunter like him needed help so their break would wait.

Jeremiah caught sight of him and tossed him a cold beer from a cooler by his feet. Dean sauntered over and joined in the conversation. "So, Jeremiah, who exactly is that woman? Are you sure she isn't some kind of vengeful spirit?" Dean smiled at the other hunter.

"She's my Aunt, believe or not. Spent most of her life cleaning up after one hunter or another. Now she sells and buys antiques as a cover to gather cursed objects that she gets the rest of us to destroy for her."

"Well, I tell you what, I kind of like her, for an old person and all." Dean smiled and took a long drink from the bottle.

They chatted a bit with Jeremiah who used the barber shop as a cover to be able to visit Marge's shop at odd hours of the day and destroy items as needed. He was here initially to recover from a badly broken knee and just stayed on to help destroy cursed items for a while. Apparently his entire family were hunters or somehow affiliated with hunting. It reminded Dean and Sam of the family they lost. In a slightly more somber mood they headed back in to say goody bye to Marge.

She had already cleaned up the bulk of the mess and was reorganizing tea cups. She was ready for them to just leave. They piled back into the Impala and went searching for a place to crash that night. They would have to check their father's journal and maybe make some calls.

"Hey Dean, maybe it was after the hunter and hit the wrong shop?"

"Could be, but if she collects cursed objects for destruction it might well have been after her. The important question is what the hell was it, how do we kill it and where is it right now?"

They spent several hours searching the journal and looking online with no luck. They left some messages with their contacts and decided they hit a dead end.

"Come on, let's go grab some dinner and a beer or something." smiled Dean at his bookish brother.

They headed out to a small college bar and had some dinner and a few beers. The 80's music coming out of jukebox wasn't really Dean's thing but it was better than that Justin Bieber crap some places were playing.

Sam and Dean spent the next day searching the town for any leads but came across nothing. It was as if the creature had attacked and then vanished. Two days later they were both going stir crazy still trying to track down any information. Dean gave up and headed to a local dive bar to drink himself into oblivion. The events of the last few years were catching up to him. He still worried about his brother, himself, and what might happen next. With nothing else to kill, he did his best to drink himself to death. A few hours later he stumbled into the room and crashed onto his bed. It seemed like minutes later his phone was ringing and pulling him out of a deep sleep. He struggled to pull it out of his jeans pocket cursing and grumbling all the way. Hangovers did not make for a good start to the day.

"Yeah," he grouched into the phone.

Sam had woken groggily from his brothers cursing and was eying him from across the room. He had fallen asleep before Dean had returned, so he could guess how hungover his brother was, which explained much of the grouchiness in his big brothers voice. He jerked fully awake as his brother jumped up from the bed.

"Crap, when did this happen? San Francisco, really, damn it, I hate that place. Okay... Okay... we will be there as quick as we can, thanks for the call Garth".

Sam had already started throwing on clothes and packing up their duffels while his brother finished the call writing something down on a piece of paper. Within minutes they were back in the Impala and heading down the freeway. Dean filled in Sam on the way. "A church was attacked. Whatever this is, it's looking for something or someone if it's on the move like this. "

The Impala barreled over the bridge to San Francisco. Dean and Sam were dressed in their full FBI look or as Dean liked to think of it, the dressed up for Prom look. This would be much tougher to investigate. Big cities had officers that were trained to pay attention and would spot a fake ID in a heartbeat if it wasn't backed up by the right outfit and vehicle. Rather than switch cars, they parked a little ways away and walked up to the scene. This was a very large old church. There were half a dozen uniformed officers standing on the steps, several plainclothes detectives were talking just inside the doorway while ambulances pulled several people out on gurneys. They flashed their badges to the uniformed officers who looked them over and then let them past. Inside the Church they both took a moment to let their eyes adjust to the dark interior. The nave was untouched, still serene but just through the second set of doors the Church was chaos. Pews were crushed and broken, tossed aside like cast off toys, blood splattered the stained glass and the altar. Several bodies lay covered by sheets throughout the room.

"Damn it," cursed Dean slightly quieter than normal. "What the F.. I mean what did this?" he asked the lead detective realizing at the last minute there was a priest next to the detective.

"It was a wild dog. Is that covered by the FBI now? You all got nothing better to do?" barked the big detective.

"It does when there are two attacks like this in less than 3 days. It looks like someone might be training dogs to attack and are gearing up for some kind of terrorist attack."

"Really, you guys are bored as all get out if that's what they have you out on, or you got the bitch assignment. " he replied.

"Yeah, well maybe we did but come on, get me a little information here. You know, you screw up one little bank robbery and they turn you into Fox Mulder." Dean smiled back trying a different tack with the detective. A lot of agencies hated the FBI getting involved but they loved to laugh at someone who had screwed up.

"Well, it was a very big dog, we don't know how it got in, no one saw it leave but as you can see it hurt or killed a lot of people in the process."

"It was devil driven is what it was. I have never experienced anything so evil. It destroyed our votive room. It was the devil trying to destroy those prayers." piped up the priest. He was swaying slightly and looked like he had been attacked as well. Blood was slowly oozing down one side of his face but he kept waving away the paramedics trying to tend to him.

"The devil? Was there someone with it? A man or person guiding it?" asked Dean.

"I thought for a moment when it left it seemed to shift, to become a man but a man with a wolf's head. Of course I did hit my head, maybe there was a man with it. I didn't think of that." the paramedics finally managed to pull him away to a stretcher as he started to fall over.

"Do you really think someone is training it to commit a terrorist attack?" asked the lead detective incredulously.

"No but I can see someone training one to attack people for other reasons." answered Dean as he walked over to look at some of the victims. They had been torn apart. You could see bite marks where arms and legs were yanked off and throats torn out. He looked to Sam, who shook his head slightly there was no sign of demons, ghosts or other spooks. There were some very large paw prints trailing out of the blood pools but these disappeared partway down the aisle. There were so many human footprints it was hard to tell if these changed form or just disappeared.

"I don't know Dean, it could be a shifter or a skinwalker, I don't think it's a werewolf." said Sam as they walked to where the attack apparently started.

"Werewolf, you boys are Mulder and Scully aren't you?" laughed the lead the detective who had walked up behind them.

"Yes, because we really think that. Get real, I just like messing with my partner here. We keep getting these crap assignments because he's a moron. " laughed Sam.

The other officers walked away laughing at Dean sputtering at Sam. Most of the laughter seemed a little forced in an attempt to deal with the horror around them. The area with the candles had been decimated. Broken glass and splattered wax were scattered everywhere. The donation box had been broken open and coins were scattered around the area.

"Apparently the only thing they know was missing from this area was a St. Dunstan's medal that the priest had noticed in the donation box minutes before the attack. Of course it could still be somewhere in this mess but we are assuming its gone at this point." mentioned the nearest CSI person.

"Great, so now we have some crazy, training a dog to commit acts of terror to steal a St. Dunsomthing's medal," snarked the lead detective.

"St. Dunstan," smiled a nun nearby. "I always loved St. Dunstan. St. Dunstan, as the story goes, Once pull'd the devil by the nose with red-hot tongs, which made him roar, That he was heard three miles or more." The little old nun seemed to be in a sort of dream state, either from shock or from age. it might have been both, thought Dean.

He lifted an eyebrow to his brother then said their goodbyes to the detectives and headed back out into the morning sun.

As they were walking down the steps, Dean noticed a young man watching everything with interest. Of course seeing a young Latino man watching cops wasn't that unusual and a crime like this got a lot of lookie-loos so Dean thought nothing special of it although he did notice the Chevy Nova the young man climbed into. A beat up dark blue but it purred nicely as it drove away. He and Sam started walking back to their car when a uniformed officer ran up to them.

"Hey, FBI, hold up, Detective Mortimer needs to talk to you."

"Mortimer? The big ugly angry cop? He's named Mortimer." Dean laughed and then stopped at the look in the young officer's eyes.

"Yes, sir, he says it's important, there's been another attack."

Dean and Sam headed back towards the Church where officers were gathering around a couple squad cars. There had been another attack at a shop near Dolores park.

"Can we catch a ride with you over there? We had to park a few blocks away and we don't want to lose time on this." asked Sam much to Dean's annoyance. They jumped into one of the unmarked cars and started heading to the shop. Sam and Dean were crammed together with another officer in the back of the car getting bounced around as Mortimer dodged oncoming traffic and took the hills and bumps at breakneck speed. With all of that they did not make it in time, the creature had disappeared again.

The store was one of those feel good happy new age hippie type places. There were the remains of crystals shattered over the floor and all around were bells and little figurines of angels. Dean laughed inwardly at the sight of the cute little delicate angels thinking they were nothing like Castiel or any of the angels they had dealt with in real life. There were no injuries this time. Apparently the owner of the shop had closed up for lunch when the creature crashed through the front door. She had barricaded herself in the back store room while the creature had destroyed the front of her shop.

"Thank god you got here so quickly. I heard the sirens and then the creature just stopped and took off. It was so horrid!" she cried as she threw herself into Sam's arms crying into his chest. Sam held her awkwardly, patting her on the shoulder and giving his brother a dear god help me look.

It took a few minutes for them to calm her down after Sam took her outside next to the police car. Meanwhile detectives began scouring the area for potential witnesses or anything that would lead them to the creature.

Once Sam got the woman calmed down, although she still clutched to his arm, she was able to tell them a bit more than all the other witnesses. Apparently she had just closed up the door to take a quick break and was adjusting some new jewelery items she had purchased when she saw someone outside the door. She described him or her as fairly short, slender, with maybe black hair and dark eyes and skin. More Native American than Mexican but she couldn't be too sure since she only got a glance and they had a hooded jacket on. She had glanced away at some movement at the side window and when she looked back there was a huge wolf like creature outside the door. It launched itself at the glass cracking it so she ran to the back room which was blocked off from the front by an iron cage. She used the back room as a safe so she had installed an iron security door. It seemed to go wild, attacking her displays and destroying various items.

"I know this will sound really crazy... I mean even crazier than a wild dog attacking my store, but it seemed to focus on one display. It was a set of new items I had just picked up from a young lady a short while ago."

"Were they St. Dunsmore or Dunsomhing medals?" asked Dean

"St. Dunstan," growled Sam, frustrated that his brother never seemed to listen to anything that didn't directly tie to the hunt. He knew Dean was smarter than he made himself out to be and couldn't understand why he always played dumb.

"Oh, no but those would be great. They would tie in with all my angels. I love angels, they are such sweet gentle protectors."

"If you only knew, " Dean muttered under his breath as he headed back into the store.

"Ma'am, do you think you could go back in and see if there is anything missing?" smiled Sam as he began to lead her back to the store.

"Oh, well, I guess I better but really a dog as a thief? I don't understand. I mean I have all these protections in place but I never thought of getting an anti-dog charm." she babbled on as they walked back into the store. She was still clutching Sam's arm as he led her through the mess.

This time Sam noticed how many actual charms and spell type items she had in the store. She did have a very comprehensive protection set in the store. Whatever this creature was, it wasn't a typical demon if it could enter a place with this many charms.

"Oh dear, I can't believe how much damage it did so quickly. How will I ever clean this up. Oh, no, it broke some of my favorite little figures and some of those crystals are so rare. It seemed so intent on destroying everything but it... oh my, they are all gone. Every item from that nice young lady... they are all gone." she was now standing at a devastated display case that had nothing left in it but shattered glass and a small card that said "Milagro Designs, one of a kind, hand made amulets".

"Were those very special? Very expensive? " asked Detective Mortimer.

"Well, not very expensive, Most were around $2,500 a piece, give or take, wholesale. Retail I was pricing them around $6,500 or so," she answered him.

"Whooo, whistled Dean, he hated to think what expensive was to these people.

"They were special though. I mean she didn't really mention it when she sold them, but these were the real deal, they were protective amulets and special charms. Some would keep demons away, others would protect the wearer from witchcraft, or fairy magic, that kind of thing." she elaborated.

Detective Mortimer raised and eyebrow but Dean and Sam were listening closer now. This might be the tie. First a Saint's medal, now some amulets, they wondered how the original shop fit into it.

"When you say real, what do you mean exactly?" asked Mortimer.

"Oh, well, I realize a lot of people don't believe in this kind of stuff but there are traditional items and patterns that have a long history of usage. Consider things like the Celtic knot, the shamrock, the Christian cross, those kinds of things. Her work was more esoteric and covered many other traditions including a lot of items with inscriptions in a language believed to be angelic in origin. Whether or not it's truly sacred, I much prefer to sell items that have some basis behind course, I do believe in angels and saints and unfortunately demons as well. There is too much evil in the world to not believe in demons and I have seen too much good happen to not believe in God and his angels. This girl was good and she sold beautiful items. Here is her website address if you want to see what she does. It might just be coincidence. That was the only full display case and there were a lot of precious and semi-precious stones in her pieces." the woman tended to babble on a bit and still had hold of Sam's arm. He was beginning to suspect she wasn't quite as flighty as she let on.

"Great so we have demon dog out there stealing sacred items? Now I have seen it all," grunted Mortimer as he wandered away.

"Look, Ms?" asked Dean.

"Debra, Miss Debra Whitney," she responded to Dean's questions but was looking up at Sam as she answered. His arm was starting to go a little numb from her clutching fingers.

"Debra, I have seen a lot of things in my life and I have a much more open mind than Detective Morty over there. Is there something you weren't willing to mention to him, anything at all, it could help us. This thing, whatever it was has killed a lot of people and it will only get worse," Dean gave her one of his most charming flirty looks.

"Well, and I wouldn't swear to this in court or anything but I would have sworn the guy actually changed into a wolf, but I know it couldn't be a werewolf, it's the wrong time of month for them and it didn't really look like a were, it was too wolf like but it also didn't move quite like a real wolf. I have seen those in Montana and they move smoother," she kept looking around to make sure no one else could hear.

"A wolf but not a were? Hmmm, well, here is my card, if you remember anything, and I do mean anything else, please call me right away."

"What about you?" she looked up at Sam, "Do you have a card?" she smiled.

"Sam reluctantly handed her one of his fake FBI cards. He was trying to disengage his arm from her grip and finally had to ask her to let go so he could have a word with Dean privately.

She reluctantly let go but stopped him for a moment as she wrote down the website information for Milagro Desings and handed it to him. She let another officer lead her back through the shop to give them details on what was missing and or broken.

Dean and Sam stepped outside to talk about all this in privacy.

"I don't know, Dean, we have seen skinwalkers and shapeshifters but none that did anything like this."

"She knows more than she tries to let on about things. She plays the ditz but I think she might know the real deal about our kind of life. Those charms painted on her walls are the real deal and she acted like she's seen a real werewolf before so this must be something different."

"Yeah, but what?"

"I don't know man but we need to find it soon."

They headed back into the shop to look around. The only bit of evidence found was a tuft of hair, wolf hair according to the forensic technician.

"Well, I'll be damned it really is a wolf. I wonder how you train a wolf to steal? Of course little miss fluffy head in there probably didn't see the guy come in and steal stuff because she was off consulting angels or something," smirked Mortimer.

Sam and Dean convinced one of the officers to drop them off back at the Church. From there, they headed off to find a hotel for the night.

Once settled in, Sam cranked up his laptop and checked out the website for this Milagro Designs. "Check this out Dean, She really does know her stuff. These are all protective charms and amulets, strictly white magic and really good. Of course maybe it's a front, She could be evil and using this stuff to somehow magic the wolf into places. She has some wicked looking knives here as well."

"I don't know, why would she do that?"

"Why do any evil creatures do what the do? Maybe she has a grudge, heck maybe it's a scam to make money. She sells this stuff, gets lots of money, then steals the stuff back and sells it again?"

"So how is she doing it, and what is it?"

"You know what Sam, I think that shop owner might know more and be able to help us. She seemed awful sweet on you. I think you should give her a call and ask her out to dinner or something. Maybe you can get more information from her that way."

"Maybe it would help but I don't have her number anyway," responded Sam, thinking how lucky he was to miss that bullet. She was decent looking and nice but he didn't want to spend several hours with a ditz like that hanging all over him.

"Today is your lucky day Sam, her phone number is on the back of this website card she gave you." laughed Dean.

"Great, just great, " mumbled Sam as he took the card from Dean. Sure enough on the back was Debra and a number. He had no way out of this now so he hoped she wouldn't answer.

"Hi, Ms. Whitney? Yes, this is Agent Martin from earlier today. Yes the tall one. I ... yes... I... well I would like to talk to you a little more about today... yes dinner sounds great... you cooked?... mhmmmh roast salmon, baby carrots, whipped potatoes, really? No I haven't. Yes. Well I don't want to be a bother... no trouble at all?.. great. yes, what's the address, yes ma'aam... okay, Debbie. I will be right over. Thank you... oh, no apparently he's busy. sorry," he tried to keep his voice steady as he watched Dean head for the door at the last bit. He was stuck with dinner alone with Miss Debra Whitney.

He caught a taxi over to her address. It turned out to be in one of the famous painted ladies. Sam, unfolded from the back of the taxi, handed the man a little extra and said "wish me luck". He swallowed hard and walked up to the doorstep of the bright green Victorian style home. Debra opened the door before he made it up to the top of the steps.

"I am so glad you called. I really wanted to thank you for today. You were so kind and helpful."

Sam trudged up the last step, mentally preparing himself for what he pictured the house would be like. He was guessing it would be filled with delicate little pieces of furniture, every surface would be covered by figurines and there would be cats, many cats. He didn't hate cats but he didn't want to be forced to deal with the twenty or so he was sure she would have. Everything about the woman screamed crazy cat lady. He was quite surprised walking in the door to find it was decorated quite simply. The furniture was mostly large antiques and there were no little figurines in sight. There was a cat. Only one cat apparently but it was a good 15 pounds of fat dribbled over a chair.

Seeing his gaze move to the cat Debra said "Oh, sorry, I hope you aren't allergic. It's my sister's cat. I am just watching it for her while she is out of town this week."

"Oh, no, I am fine, it's just really ..."  
"Fat?" she finished for him. She wasn't nearly as flighty as she had been earlier. She led him to the back of the house where there was a small dining nook overlooking her back yard.

"Can I get you a glass of wine, beer, cocktail? Or are you still on duty I can get you a water or maybe some juice. Sorry I don't drink soda."

"A beer sounds great." smiled Sam figured he might get more information out of her if he took a more relaxed approach.

"Sit down, relax. Dinner will be out shortly." she smiled as she walked into the kitchen. A few minutes later the table was filled with some amazing food. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all thought Sam.

"I really appreciate you being there and being discrete about my comments about the werewolves. You aren't really FBI are you? Or at least not just FBI. You and your partner are hunters aren't you?" Debra started off as Sam put the first bit into his mouth. He almost choked on it.

"What do you mean hunter?" he tried to play it off after he washed down the bite with some beer.

"That Mortimer might have bought your story about a trained wolf but I know better. You were too open to what I had to say, and you recognized my protection spells for what they were and most people buy my flighty angel loving act, you saw through it right away."

"You can't bring this up to any of those other officers. You know how they would react but yes, Dean and I are hunters. We are chasing down this thing and don't have a clue yet what it might be. You had some serious protections in place so I am not sure how it got in there, or why it focused on one case. In the Church, it stole a St. Dunstan's medal, but nothing was taken from the first place. Before we go further, how do you know about hunters?"

"Oh, well, I have been selling new age stuff for a very long time. When I was just starting out, the store I ran was infested with a poltergeist. One of my regular customers turned out to be a hunter. He helped get rid of it but in the process let me know more than he should have. Ever since, I come across you guys once in a while looking for special ingredients, etc."

"Huh, so you learned those protections from various hunters?"

"And white witches. But look, today, that thing was not a werewolf or a shifter. I have seen both and this was different but kind of the same, if you know what I mean. It was full of rage unlike anything I have ever seen. Not all shifters are killers you know but this was evil beyond anything I have encountered or heard of."

"Was there anything else? Anything that might help us find this thing? What about the girl who sold the stuff? "

"I don't remember anything else. Mostly I was just terrified the door wouldn't hold. As for the girl, her name was Lanie, she seemed just normal. I think she is just a salesperson. Someone else makes most of the stuff. She was pretty average, around 5'7 or 8, dark hair, dark eyes, olive toned skin thin in that unhealthy sort of way, you know like she just doesn't eat or something. I don't think she is involved. It had to be coincidence." Debra seemed quite sure the girl was not involved but Sam didn't believe in coincidences anymore.

They chatted about various things over the rest of dinner. He was surprised but she didn't get all clutchy or grabby like she had earlier. Whatever the reason, he wasn't going to bring it up. He wasn't ready for a one night stand or anything else with her. Instead it turned out to be a nice dinner with very little extra information.

Sam caught another taxi back to their hotel around 10 PM and was surprised to find Dean in the room, looking through something on the internet as he walked in.

"OH, please tell me you are not watching porn," sighed Sam as he shielded his eyes from the screen.

"No, I did that an hour ago. I am just looking at some of the stuff on this Milagro Designs website." laughed Dean.

'Yeah? you going to find yourself a pretty little necklace? Maybe you can get some earrings to go with it." teased Sam.

"So, you are home early, what's the matter? Couldn't you even score with the hippie chick or did she really just want to braid your hair?"

"She ended up being pretty normal. That flighty thing was just an act. " Sam went on to tell Dean what Debra had said and to brag on the really great homemade food he had.

"I don't think it's a coincidence. This Lanie chick is involved somehow. Speaking of which, I was checking out this site and I was thinking if we had something from this place, the creature would attack us, and we could kill it. What do you think? Should we order something, maybe a knife like this one" Dean pointed out a dagger with intricate silver worked into the blade in Enochian.

"Great idea Dean, did you notice the 6 month waiting list notice at the bottom of the page?"

"Well, it was still a great idea. This place doesn't even have a phone number or address. Isn't that a little weird?"

They decided to call it a night and see what they could figure out the next day.


	4. Chapter 4

Leaving Quartzite was both a relief and a nightmare. This particular stretch of road had to be one of the most boring drives in the country. No matter which direction you looked all you saw was brown dirt and little half dead weeds. The occasional crow or lizard might show up but that seemed to be about it. It was along the godawful boring stretch of I-8 through the Arizona desert Mirai noticed a dark Chevy Nova a few miles behind her. It looked vaguely familiar but Nova's were common as mud so maybe she was imagining it. It turned off at the next pullout so she convinced herself she was wrong. Her MP3 player had shuffled in some blues songs along the way. As much as she loved listening to Buddy Guy's I Smell a Rat, she needed something with a bit more kick to it for this drive. It was already hot and the one thing her baby did not have was a working air conditioner. She pulled off to the side, rolled down all the windows and cued up a more hardcore play list. With Mastodon's The Wolf is Loose, blasting through the desert heat, she shifted the car into gear and began to ease out the clutch; the Nova she had seen earlier drove slowly by her. The windows were tinted so she couldn't get a clear view of the driver but now she was sure she had seen that car before, in San Rafael and in San Miguel. La Jolla was packed with cars so she likely missed it there. She dropped the clutch, sped out of the pullout and flew past the Nova. She had no places she could turn off but she could beat that old POS any day. She zipped through what little traffic there was as she flew down the road. Soon, the Nova wasn't even a blip in her rear view mirror. Once she was sure she was well out of his way she slowed down a bit. The rest of the way to Tucson she convinced herself she was imagining things. There were many reasons that car was on the same road and it could still be a different Nova. As she pulled into the Church of the Mother parking lot she had convinced herself she was overstressed on this. By habit she pulled into the back lot and under one of the small carports. She pulled out a car cover and covered it carefully. She may be paranoid but better safe than sorry was her motto.

Once her car was secured, she headed in to the rectory of the church. This was not an average church. Pastor John ran it more to offer services and protection to the people in the neighborhood than to offer spiritual guidance. He held services every Sunday but most of his sermons were about compassion for those around you and taking care of one another. He had lost his faith in God during the failed apocalypse. He felt God had abandoned his people so he abandoned God.

Mirai found him in one of the school rooms strumming a guitar and singing silly little songs to a group of young children.

"Grasshopper sat on a railroad rack, singing polly wolly doodle all the day. " his aging voice carried across the room over the giggling dancing children. Mirai hung back, children were little demons in disguise in her mind. She had never been comfortable around kids but she couldn't help but smile at the songs Pastor John sang. The final song he sang was much slower and not one you would normally think of for children. His voice was mournful as he finished it up.

The children all ran up, gave him a hug, then ran past Mirai to their next class.

"What was that last song?"

"Well, Little Lanie look at you. Girl don't you ever eat?" He smiled and wrapped her up in a giant bear hug.

She laughed as he swung her in a circle."Come on John, you know me and music, I need to know what song that is. It was such a sad reference to angels and is really very dark. Do you think that's appropriate for kids?"

"That's Folk Bloodbath by Josh Ritter but he based it on a song by Mississippi John Hurt. You know these kids, can you really say that is too dark for them? Now seriously, don't you eat? I swear you go away all winter and hibernate. Come on, it's almost snack time, I might even be able get you some of Elsie's Tamales."

"Oh, all right, let me down to catch my breath and you can feed me all the tamales you want." Mirai had created a persona for Lanie that was very different from her own personality. She assumed a sales girl would be more bubbly, fun and of course would be willing to be hugged so that's what Lanie liked. Over the years she had grown accustomed to the contact but never really managed to maintain bubbly except here with Pastor John and his wife.

He led her down to the cafeteria and made her sit and wait to be served. His wife, Elsie, brought out a huge steaming plate of homemade tamales.

Mirai ended up eating much more than she initially planned but they were much too tasty to not eat. The company of such warm and friendly people helped too. The conversation centered on light items. She told them about her trip to San Francisco and playing tourist. The one rule that Pastor John always upheld was that there was no talk of hunting, or demons, or anything of that nature in the cafeteria.

This was Elsie's safe haven, the one place where the children in their care would face nothing fearful or dangerous. After eating more than she normally did in a week, Mirai settled back to watch the couple feed their band of orphans. The hunter life was never easy and many hunters left behind orphans or single parent homes. Pastor John would take these kids in and give them a good home and a safe place to learn. Most followed their family members into the life eventually so here they learned self defense, basic mythology and folklore as well as all the normal school work. Those that stayed out of the life still benefited from the education. She had asked once why they bothered taking in the kids and all that. The look they both gave her shut her up quickly and she never dared to ask again. She just couldn't understand why they gave up so much to live in this place and provide all this for kids that weren't even theirs. They didn't even get state money for most of these kids. They both obviously cared for the kids they took in. and the kids would all get a much better home than she ever had at their age but she didn't understand why. After the snacktime was over, John led her out to his garage.

"Lanie, it's getting bad out there. I hear a lot of bad things, rumors and more. Those Winchester boys have caused a lot of problems. After the whole Lucifer out of the cage apocalypse thing and those Leviathan's and now, well it's just bad. We have hunters killing hunters and something is wreaking havoc down the California coast. Every ambitious hunter within five states, is heading that way figuring it's something big and bad. The ones with sense are heading the opposite direction. I know you want to make your normal run but this is not the summer to do that. You need to get to wherever your little hiding place is and stay safe."

"I can't do that. There are a lot of people waiting for my stuff. I play it safe. Plus,that California thing couldn't have been so big. I would have run into it if it had been. You worry too much. I am not one of your little ones to need hand holding you know."she huffed back, hoping the bluster would hide some of the real concern she began to have. Maybe that something in California was following her. She was staring out the window when she noticed a blue Nova driving past the church. It was moving very slow, as though the driver was searching for something or someone. "Shit! Oh crap, sorry Pastor" she cursed. "I need to leave. I was followed, I can't bring this danger to you."

"Lanie, are you sure you were followed? Who or what is it? "

"I don't know but that Nova that just went past was in San Rafael and San Michael and I left him in the dust on the I-8 past Quartzite. I am sure it's the same car, tint windows, midnight blue a crappy POS 74 Nova. Damn it John, let me go, you know what kind of people try to follow me, I don't get why you like those kids so much but I can't bring them or you danger."

"You really don't understand it do you?" he didn't let go of her arm. "If we don't care for them, no one will. We can at least give them a chance, like someone gave you a chance. Lanie, I know you work for the Smith and he has obviously trained you but you need to learn to depend on someone else and that you can trust others. You are safe here. Nothing can get to you here. At least slow down and think. Maybe we can figure out who or what that is in the car. In fact, just let me call the cops. If I say someone is threatening these kids or even just watching them too closely they will come out in full force. Yes, I know you don't trust cops but they have their uses. At least it's worth a try? I can find out who it is. If you just take off, you will never know and if they switch cars you will never be able to spot them again. Let's buy you time to figure out how he followed you here because I can assure you there is no way that car kept pace with the way you drive. Plus did you say San Rafael and San Miguel, there were attacks there. This could be that creature. We have a hunter on the force, if it is something from our world he can deal with it, behind iron bars."

His reassuring tone soothed some of her fears and he was making sense. It helped that he didn't let her get a word in until he had said his piece. She did need to check the car and her stuff out, maybe someone put a tracker on her baby. The thought of someone violating her baby like that was terrible but she needed to know. She agreed to let John make the call to the police and then went out and searched her car. Within minutes there half a dozen squad cars in the lot and uniforms all over the church grounds. Cops had always made her nervous but she made sure she had the ID to match her business information and to match everything Pastor John knew her by and went back into the church office with a young officer while the others checked out the Church and posted themselves around various areas.

"Now, ma'am, Pastor John says you got a good look at the car."

"Yes, it was a '74 Chevy Nova, It was a navy blue or a faded black. It had limo tint windows, chromed rims and wide tires. I think it was modified in some way, either lowered or something. Something about it just looked wrong."

His look of awe told her he hadn't met many women that knew cars.

"I'm kind of a car geek. As teenager, my boyfriend was really into muscle cars so I picked up a lot. " she explained.

"So did you see the driver at all, anything that might help?"  
"No, the windows were very dark, I couldn't even tell if there was a driver, it could have been driven by remote control for all I could see"

"Well, don't you worry, we will have someone here to watch over the kids until we find the creep."

She smiled and thanked him, while inside she was cursing. Having a cop over her shoulder would only cause her trouble. Hunters would avoid the place now. Very few if any had clean records.

The next three hours seemed longer than the entire day of driving had. Mirai ended up in one of the classrooms with the kids. John had her show them how to make a simple little clay sculpture. Being in a room with 15 little terrors just made the time go even slower and getting swarmed and hugged by them at the end almost drove her out the door. She did move towards the main doors and then realized she would have to pass by a parking lot full of cops so she changed her mind and sat down in the main hall instead. Pastor John and the lead officer found here there 20 minutes later.

"They think they found the car. Would you be willing to go with the officer to identify it? I can go with you, you don't have to go alone."

"I can do it. It's okay, you should stay here with your kids I am sure I will be fine with Officer... Duffy here." Mirai actually wasn't sure of any of that but she knew it would be more suspicious if she insisted on the Pastor joining her.

The officer opened the front passenger door of his squad car for her and moved some clipboards and other items. She had never ridden in the front of a police car before. There was hardly any room for her. Most of the car was packed with a laptop looking thing, radios and 12 gauge shotgun. Officer Duffy fired up the car and headed out as soon as she was buckled. They drove about 15 minutes away to a small shopping center. Parked in front of a pharmacy was the Nova.

"That's it. that's the car I saw."

"Are you sure ma'am?"

"I am very sure. It was driving by very slowly and I got a good look, the right rear fender had a mark or discoloration in the paint that looked like a dent at first. That is the car."

The officers moved their cars back a bit and waited to see who got into the car. Mirai grew more and more nervous as they sat under a tree in the back lot. These guys weren't prepared to handle the type of thing she normally faced. About 15 minutes later a young man stepped out of the pharmacy and walked towards the Nova. He looked vaguely familiar to Mirai. She was sure she had seen him before but couldn't quite place him. The moment his keys were in the lock for the car the officers swarmed him. Once they had him on the ground, Officer Duffy motioned for her to come closer.

"Do you recognize him at all?"

"Crap, that's Mr. Latino... I mean sort of, I don't know his real name. He was at a car show I was at last month. He must have followed me somehow. Thank god." she let out without thinking it through.

"Thank God, what do mean?"

"Oh, well that means it was me he was after, not those kids." she recovered quickly.

"Why would he be after you? Do you have a history of some kind?" she realized she had only made the cop more suspicious.

So she tried a different tack, she was honest or at least mostly honest. "I drive a classic car, he and some other punks were ogling it oustide the car show at San Rafael. I let them have a look at it, figuring it would be fine. I don't know for sure why he would follow me, but considering he drives a piece of crap, maybe he was planning on stealing it. I have put a lot into the car and it's worth at least $125,000 to $150,000 at this point."

"Damn, what do you drive?"

"A 68 Pontiac GTO." She didn't go into all the specifics since some were technically illegal mods.

"That could do it. Little punk like this but I am surprised he would follow you so far for one."

"You got it wrong man, I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to steal anything. I was trying to warn her. It's coming for her. She's in danger you need to protect her. It's coming for her. The _yee naaldlooshii_ is coming for her. " the man on the ground started to scream.

Mirai stepped back truly frightened. He was talking about a Navajo skinwalker, a witch that would change forms.

"Miss, miss are you okay. He's crazy but we have him. You will be safe. Do you know what he was talking about? You look a littlle dizzy, come here into the shade, sit down." one of the other officers led her to a curb under a little tree.

"It's, it's sillly really, I'm sorry, maybe it's the heat but I think he said a Navajo witch was coming after me. Ridiculous but one of my foster families was Navajo and they used to talk about how if you weren't careful, yee naaldlooshii would get you. It's a witch that can change form and I don't know, eats people or something. I remember there was something about them using dead people for something. It's pretty freaky to think about. It just... he must be so crazy... to threaten someone with that. I mean what could he be capable of." she was shaking a little even with the oppressive heat.

"Take her back to the Church, she's seen enough, get her out of here." shouted Officer Duffy as they loaded into a squad car. He was fighting them every step of the way and yelling out to her to "Run. Get away. Hide if you can. It's after you."


	5. Chapter 5

Sam headed over to the main library to attempt some further research. While he was in some mildewy basement surrounded by musty books, Dean decided it was time to replenish their cash so he headed out to find a pool hall. He hadn't thought this through far enough and ended up in some very interesting places. Of course in a city known for its gay and lesbian population it makes sense there would be so many bars catering to them. It was just amazing he would hit five in a row. The sixth bar turned out to be a normal working class bar. Four hours later Dean had pockets full of cash and was headed out with a a hot young brunette on his arm. Meanwhile Sam was buried under three feet of books in the special collections room. He had found over a dozen different legends regarding shapeshifters. There were many different versions from what they had encountered already. This thing could be any one of them. He made copies of each different story and headed back the hotel. He was pleased to have the room to himself. Dean must be at the bar he thought as he headed for the shower.

He was a little worried when he woke up 9 hours later and still no Dean. Of course his brother came in whistling a few minutes later. "Man, I love this city. You won't believe the girl I met last night. She took me home and her roommate walked in on us. I was all set to run when the roommate jumps in. "smiled Dean.

"Stop right there Dean, I don't want to hear this."

"Yeah, well I had a much better night than you did."

" I might have found the information we need to catch this thing... of course there are like 20 different things it could be and all of them get killed a different way." snapped Sam as he pulled out the copies he had made and handed them to Dean. "And I did some digging into that Milagro Designs. Get this, I can't find a real person behind it. The owner is one Marcus Smith, who has been dead for 10 years, the PO box is for a John Davies, who died 15 years ago, the paypal account goes to 15 other accounts that flow to other accounts that I can't track. The contact person listed on the site is a Lanie Smith who as far as I can tell never existed. Whoever this Lanie person is, she doesn't want to be found. Most of the stuff she has on her website is strictly jewelery and art type items but there are a few that may be more questionable. I don't know if they are demonic or not, I can't recognize the symbols and I couldn't find them anywhere on the web or in Dad's journal. I sent them to Garth to see if he can track them down."

"She has to have something to do with this. Didn't that old bat at the antique store say something about a new rack?" responded Dean as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah, the one the swords were on, she had just received it."

"It had different protection symbols on it. I bet that's what she uses to lure the creature where she wants it so it'll attack. Maybe she's a witch?"

"I don't know Dean, why all the angelic and protective symbols? Why not sell occult and satanic stuff instead? Plus we didn't find any hex bags. Maybe you shouldn't judge so quickly."

"Our best bet is to find this chick. She is in the middle of this somehow."

"Well, it's better than any theory I have but how do we find her?

"We'll figure something out. We have to, this thing is killing more and more people."

Sam knew his brother felt responsible for each and everyone one of those dead. He always held so much on himself even while he pretended to be so cavalier about life.

They wandered around a bit trying to figure out if there was a trail here or not. They found no trace of the girl or the monster.

Then Sam had an idea, he called Jeremiah, after kicking himself for not thinking of it earlier.

"Hey, Jeremiah, we might have a lead but we need some help. Marge had a new sword rack...hmmhmm,yes, and the girl...yeah Lanie... , she drove a what? What is a Goat?Oh, a Pontiac GTO. Yes, that helps. 1968, midnight blue, okay. No I don't think she is the monster but it's tied to her somehow or she might of seen something. So you don't believe she could be involved? Just a typical young lady? It's just some of her stuff has been found at the latest scenes. Yes, an odd coincidence. Yes, we will thank you."

He turned to Dean, "We might be able to track her, she drives some kind of old car, a 1968 GTO. He said there was a car show in town so maybe we look for car shows. Oh, and she sells artwork so maybe art shows too? But, he really doesn't think she could be involved. Says she seemed like a normal salesperson."

"Its an idea. At least we can give it a go and what better disguise than as a salesperson. Of course she wants to look innocent. I just have a feeling that something is off with this girl." Dean figured they had some crazier ideas in the past than this so it might be worth a try.

"Great, I'll go research car shows, you get us packed up. If I have one more person tell me how cute my partner is, I am going to shoot them."

"Partner? As in that kind of partner? And of course they think I'm cute, they must have good taste," Dean smirked as he tilted his head a little to the side, showing off his strong jawline. His green eyes were striking as usual. Sam had always understood why the girls chased after Dean but he wasn't about to let Dean know that.

"Its San Francisco, what do you think? Of course most of them have been pretty drunk so your looks might be beer goggles, " grinned Sam as he pulled up the calendar of car shows. He found one in Sedona, Arizona over July 4th. That was the next nearest one he could find. He started to shut down the computer when a google alert popped up. He had set up various searches to automatically pop up when some kind of news notification came up that might be their kind of thing. This one was in San Miguel, a small motel and a Mission had been attacked. There were multiple dead but the few survivors swore it was a wolf that attacked them.

"Dean, we got another attack, it's in some place called San Miguel."

"This thing must either love or hate saints,... you know everywhere it has hit has been San something." he finished at the strange look Sam gave him.

"Yeah, or California is just not very creative with it's names. Let's go Dean."

They piled their stuff into the Impala and headed out to San Miguel. While Dean drove Sam looked up more information on the City and relayed it to Dean as he found it. "Basically the motel is actual outside of San Miguel, there are no hotels in San Miguel itself just a mission and stuff like that. the Motel is some kind of crappy dive called the Farmers Inn but it looks like it should be called a flophouse. The mission was full of tourists when it got hit. They still don't have a final count of the dead. it's up to 15 now."

Dean hit the pedal down on the Impala, as if driving faster would somehow save some of those lives. Dean dropped Sam off at the motel and headed on towards the Mission. Sam didn't even bother to argue, he knew it was impossible when his brother was like this. Instead, he straightened his tie and stepped up to the police surrounding the motel.

"Agent Roscoe, FBI" He smiled at the first officer he came to.

"FBI? you guys so bored you are chasing dogs now?"  
"Look whatever did this attacked a shop in San Rafael, killed several at a church in San Francisco, attacked several others, and now this. So yeah, we are involved but we sure aren't bored," Sam growled back. It had taken a while but he managed to bluff his way through this much more easily now. Sam never realized exactly how intimidating his height made him.

"Shit, place like this who knows what they think they seen. It was probably one of them that killed their buddy while high on who knows what."

He led Sam into the office of the motel. It looked like every other dive he and Dean had ever stayed in, except for the blood spattered around the room. Crime scene technicians were photographing everything and taking samples of bits and pieces at each spot. This thing was in a rage when it went through here.

"This, as far as we can guess was the motel clerk. His boss is in the back room." Sam stepped carefully around the remains of the poor clerk, noting the claw marks on the desk and wall paper. The boss was not dead, in fact he was just fine, much to Sam's surprise.

"I tell you what I saw, it was a wolf, big like they have in Alaska, ugly and rabid. I shot three times and I know I hit it but it didn't even slow down. It shredded poor Tommy. I barricaded myself in here and eventually it went away."

Sir, how much have you had to drink?'

"Nothing, nothing at all, I don't beleive in that, I don't drink or smoke, or any of that. I know what I saw, I know what I saw" the man broke down crying. Sam began to look around for clues, and spotted a familiar style pendant.

"Where did you get this?" he lifted it up and asked the man.

"I bought it."

"Where did you buy it?"

"It was this girl that stayed with us. Technically I traded her room for the night for it. Thought my girlfriend might like it. Lady said she was on her way that art show in La Jolla so I figured I was lucky to get some fancy artists piece. Doesn't look like it now does it?" muttered the crying man.

"Let me guess, somehow the wolf creature came in here to steal the necklace." laughed the lead cop int he room.

"Yes, because it's a magic pendant that will turn it into a handsome prince." snapped Sam. "No, but we have seen something like this at at least one of the other scenes. I don't know how it all ties, but it does. I need to take this. I need to get it to our techs and see what we can figure out." Sam filled out an evidence form, forging his fake name and moved outside where he asked one of the other officers to drive him to the Mission.

Dean pushed the impala as hard as he dared to get to the Mission. He needed to stop this creature. If he had been faster or smarter or something, these people might still be alive. Castiel popped up next to him halfway there.

"Dammit, Cas, you have to quit sneaking up on me like that."

"I am sorry, Dean, I don't know how to not surprise you in the car and I felt it was important to be here, now."

"You flit in and out of our lives, half the time you screw us over and now you want to be here, to help me."

"Dean, I have tried my best always. I don't understand what you want from me. I felt you needed me and here I am. Let me help."

"I don't need your help, unless you can find this wolf thing for me."  
"I can try, let me try. Please Dean, I need to make up for everything."

"Okay, but follow my lead at the Mission and keep your trap shut," Dean didn't understand why it was so hard to say no to Castiel. He wanted to kick Cas out of the car but for some odd reason felt like it would be like kicking a puppy.

The Mission parking lot was full of emergency vehicles. Dean parked outside the area and they walked the long driveway up to the main church.

"Cas, just keep your mouth shut when we get up there. Got it?"

"I understand Dean," he did and he didn't. He didn't understand Dean's anger. He never really understood Dean's anger. Also, he knew the right words to say and he spoke clearly why did Dean hate to have him speak? All his years on earth and he still couldn't figure out these most confusing of God's creations.

There was a crowd of very pale faced uniformed officers right outside the front doors to the chapel. Dean had an idea of how bad it would be inside after having seen the bodies at the last church. He wasn't sure he wanted to face this. He put on a great face for others, especially for Sammy but it was all starting to get to him. How many bodies would he have to see? When would it finally be over? He believed it would never be over. He had lost his faith long ago. The only thing that gave life any meaning was to stop as many of these bastards as he could. He took a deep breath and stepped up to the door. A young plain clothes officer stopped him.

"Hi, I am Agent Walker, " Dean held up his latest ID.

"Let me guess, Johnny? Smiled the cop.

"Yeah, well, my brother wasn't so lucky, he got stuck with Red" Dean joked back.

"And you?" He looked at Cas.

"He's with me, a specialist. Cas Novak"

"In this? I doubt that. We don't even know what did this. the survivors that can talk aren't making much sense. Go ahead and see what you can do. We will take whatever help we can get. Officer Winchester is near the altar."

"Winchester? Like the rifle?"

"Word of warning if you don't want to piss him off then don't even mention his name. "

"Well, as you may have guessed, I understand about the name thing."

"Hmm guess you would. Good luck in there. It's bad. I used to work gang crimes in Chicago and I can't handle it."

Dean and Cas walked into the Chapel. It was worse then he had expected. The dead were scattered around the church. Even for a hunter this was almost too much. He had seen monsters kill before but not like this. This creature didn't feed, it just destroyed. There were claw marks in the floor, pews had been ripped apart in it's attempt to get to the people hiding under them. The votive area was completely trashed. Candles had been crushed, the glass shattered. The donation box here was built much sturdier than the one at St. Mary's. There were deep claw marks in the metal but it hadn't broken. Maybe that's what threw it into the rage.

"Detective Winchester, who are you?" asked a very short detective.

"Agent Walker, I have been tracking down the cause of this. You aren't the first place that's been hit."

"Any idea what it is agent, because I've got a half a dozen witnesses saying it was a werewolf. "

"Yep, basically, that's what I've got, well the wolf part. We are looking into the possibility someone has trained a wolf to attack. Sort of a unique weapon."

"Really, that's the best the Feds have to offer? I might as well go ahead and start stocking silver bullets. The werewolf stories are just as believable."

"Yeah, well, open up that coin box by the votives. If there is a St. Duns... oh crap... some kind of saint's medal in there then we know it's related to our guy."

"Really, a saints medal in a votive box. That's just eerie."  
"It's a particular saint, patron saint of blacksmiths. St. Dunsman, Dunsmore..."

" ," piped up one of the crime scene technicians.

"Yes, that's it. We are finding those things everywhere this thing attacks."

"Well, let's get that box open."

Detective winchester led the way over to the box. It took them a few minutes to find the right key and get the box open. Sure enough inside mixed with the coins was a St. Dunstan's medal.

"Damnit, she's been here too."cursed Dean

"Who,who's been here? Do you know who did this?"

"Just a lead we have, some woman sells jewelry and seems to have left stuff in every place where this thing has attacked."

Cas looked up at the mention of the jeweler. "Hey, I need to go, check something."

"Yeah, go ahead" Dean answered distractedly as he stared down at the little silver medal.

Cas walked outside to where the injured were being loaded into worst injured he touched lightly, just enough to keep them from dying not enough to be noticed by the EMTs. Looking into their memories he could see the wolf clearly. It was a large timber wolf but something about it was wrong. Something in the eyes was almost human. He couldn't be sure but it had to be some type of shifter or a skinwalker. In the memories, it initially attacked the donation box and it wasn't until it couldn't break in there that it attacked the people.

Sam found Dean inside near a smashed rack of candles talking to the shortest cop he had ever seen. Although he usually didn't feel too uncomfortable about his height, this time he felt very out of place.

"I think you're right, it has something to do with the girl. Look what was left at the last place. It looked like the creature was trying to destroy the motel to get to this." he handed Dean the evidence bag.

"See, Sammy, I knew it. she lures it with these things to get it to kill people. She's some kind of freaky serial killer witch"

"Witch? Who the hell are you boys, I don't believe the FBI is out on a witch hunt," asked the short cop.

"Sam, this is Officer Winchester. I told him about our theory that this is a terrorist training a wolf to attack. I didn't mean a witch like one that rides a broom or whatever, but really, I am in church, you think I should have used the other words that came to mind?" Dean turned back to the officer.

"Well, I guess you have a point there. So this jewelry somehow attracts the wolf? How would it do that?"

"We don't know, maybe a scent marker, maybe some hidden electronic, maybe it really is witchcraft, I don't know, I need to look at these and figure it out. Sam, Where's Cas? Did you see him outside? He might have an idea, this is his specialty."

"No, I didn't see him. When did he show up?"

"I picked him up on the drive over."

They headed out to the ambulance staging area where they could see Cas moving from patient to patient. They met him near the end of the rows. Their long strides had left Officer Winchester far behind. This gave them a few moments alone with Cas to go over things.

"It's a shapeshifter but not like any I have come across before," Cas started as soon as they go there. "There is something very human about it. The rage, it's fueled by rage."

"We keep finding these things wherever it attacks." Dean handed him the amulet and St. Dunstan's medal.

"St. Dunstan, patron saint of armorer, goldsmiths, locksmiths and jewelers. He was ordained by the Bishop of Winchester if I remember correctly. And this, this is Enochian. Protective symbols, and luck." Cas handed them back the items. "I don't understand what these have to do with something so filled with hate. These are pure, clean, and should be effective protective measures." Cas looked worried which had Dean and Sam very concerned.

"So, what does your expert have to say?" asked officer Winchester.

"These need to go to the lab for further tests. Have them checked for any kind of scent markers or trace. We are going to take them over there right now. The quicker we can figure this out the quicker we can catch this beast."

Dean led the other two out of the lot and down to the Impala. It never ceased to amaze him how people would just believe their headed out to find a motel for the night. They needed to spend some time researching this further and Dean really needed a drink or five. They found a little dive with one remaining room. It had two beds and since Cas didn't sleep it would work out fine.

Dean woke up with a murderous hangover. It was June 30th and no clue yet as to what this thing was or how it was finding these items. Looking at the timeline, it was about a week behind the witch or maybe a little less. They were maybe a day behind it so far. Somewhere in the middle of the night Cas had disappeared, which really wasn't that unusual. He seemed to flit in and out of their life on a regular basis. They loaded up the Impala and headed down to La Jolla. The art show was a stretch, but this woman seemed to be traveling south so maybe it wasn't that crazy. The trip to La Jolla flew by with some classic rock blasting the entire way. Dean had to admit the California coast did make for a pretty drive and the fresh warm air was a nice change. They pulled up to the festival grounds but the festival had closed. With no new leads in the are, they decided to go ahead and drive out to their second possiblity , the car show in Sedona, Arizona.

"Great, July and we are headed to the desert and Arizona. I hate Arizona," muttered Dean. He let his brother drive for a while so he could catch up on some much needed sleep. They switched places after they crossed the Colorado River in a little two bit town called Parker. They made decent time, arriving in Sedona, midday. They didn't realize that Sedona would be such an expensive and classy place and ended up driving down the road a bit until they found a hotel in Cottonwood just south of Sedona. Dean headed over to a little dive bar with Sam and his laptop in tow. A few beers and a burger later they had figured out when and where the car show would be. It actually started on July third so they had some time to scout the area.

They got a late start the next morning. Both were nursing hangovers and not really enjoying the heat. They stayed inside their air conditioned room making calls and further searches.

"I think I've got it Dean, its a Hirpini Sorani."

"A Hippie what?"

"Really, do you even listen at all? It's also called a are an ancient beast. I think maybe it has been taken on like a familiar, that is if you are right and this woman is somehow causing it to attack. It is actually fairly easy to kill, with only one catch. It must be killed on sanctified ground or it will come back to life and seek the death of those who tried to kill it."

"So we catch it in a Church and kill it. Sounds perfect. Now how do we find it, and it's master or should I say mistress?"

"Well, we can check out the car show and see if there is anyone meeting the description of the girl or her car. It opened up at noon today. We could be up there in an hour and see what we can find."

"Hey do you hear those sirens, that has to be the third set I have heard, doesn't that strike you as odd in a small place like this?"

"Yeah, it is a little odd," the boys headed out to see what was going on. There was a chain of ambulances and fire trucks heading out of town. They noticed the hotel clerk standing outside smoking a cigarette and watching the parade of emergency vehicles.

"Hey, you have any idea what is going on?" asked Sam.

"Yup, some kind of rabid animal attack up in Jerome. Crazy creature attacked a whole bunch of tourists and then took off down the hill. It's like that damn rabid bobcat all over again. Of course that creature was dumb enough to wander into the Chaperrel Bar and get between Buck and his budweiser. There wasn't much left of that creature when he ran out of ammo."

"Wait, you have had an actual bobcat in the bar... that bar... right over there?" Dean couldn't seem to get past that to stop and realize they had another case.

"Dean, dont' you think we should gear up and see if they want any help up there? You know as FBI agents on a case and all?" Sam started to pull him away.

"What, oh yeah, but man how awesome, we drank in a bar that had a rabid bobcat in it. What's the odds?"

Sam smiled embarrassedly at the clerk as they walked back to their room. They didn't bother pulling on full suits. They just grabbed the right IDs, their guns and headed in the direction of the sirens. The 20 minute drive up the curvy desert roads seemed twice as long. Dean really wanted to just floor it but they had to keep pulling over to let emergency vehicles go past. They pulled off into a parking lot near the bottom of the mountain town. Every other house looked like it was haunted or falling down. Some were barely hanging on the edge of the cliff. This looked to much like a ghost town to be real but apprently it was an old mining town turned tourist stop and arts colony. About 10 minutes walk up the steep road, Dean was cursing under his breath as they came across the first set of victims. They were being tended to by various EMTs and other passerby. it seemed as though everyone within a five mile radius had some kind of injury. No one appeared to be dead though. They approached a group that seemed to be more shook up than injured.

"Hi, Agent Rose, this is my partner Agent Young. Can you tell us what happened here?"

"Dude it was like crazy, I mean we expected ghosts and snakes and even scorpions but not a rabid wolf. I didn't even think they had wolves in this area. It just went crazy, slashing everyone and running around before it took off down that hill over there." He pointed to what looked like a cliff to Dean where a group of police and game and fish officers were standing. One was tying off a rope to a railing and preparing to climb down the cliff.

They walked over to the group, flashed their badges, and asked for information.

"People keep saying rabid wolf that was the size of a small pony, of course with the kind of artsy people you get up here, it was probably a pack of coyotes. It wouldn't be the first time we had an animal attack in these parts. After a dry winter like this one, they are pretty hungry and will attack recklessly. we have game and fish tracking them down so I don't think we need the FBI's help.

"Well we were just in the area on a case, saw all the lights and sirens and figured we would help if needed."

"It's a small town, all of these are small towns, this is the most excitement any of these guys are likely to seeforhte next year so of course eveyrone had to come."

"What's in that direction anyway? Some kind of wildlife refuge or something?"

"Straight that way, you go past the Verde Railway, Clarkdale, and then I guess Sedona. Of course that's 30 miles of desert hills and two creeks to cross. I guess the pack could be shopping for hippie new age stuff and heading to Sedona. Why don't you go ask Sedona if they have a vortex for coyotes? They might like the FBI sticking it's big fat nose into their little business. We don't."

"Gee Sammy, do you get the idea we aren't wanted here?" smiled Dean as they walked back towards the car. They were nearly run down by a pack of harley riders flying down the road towards Cottonwood.

"This was our creature, I just know it. We need to get to Sedona. Even at a full run, we can beat it there. I am beginning to believe you are right and it's following that girl. I think I saw some of her style of stuff in some of those shops back there."

They didn't hold back on the drive through Cottonwood and up to Sedona. Sam enjoyed the view of the red rocks and odd cliffs they were driving up to.

"You know, Dean, this is kind of a nice place. Maybe once we kill this thing we should stick around a day or two. We could use a break and I bet with the car show you could find parts and things for the Impala?"

"It doesn't completely suck. Maybe we can stay or something," Dean grunted. He had been pushing Sam pretty hard, maybe it was time to take a break for a bit.

Sedona was packed with tourists and classic car enthusiasts. The Impala got a lot of looks even covered in dust like it was. Dean found a parking lot at the North end of town and locked up his baby. They were in between a Land Rover and BMW so he figured she would be pretty safe. They walked out into the crowds full of people. Dean had left his coat in the car and used a flannel shirt to hid his gun and knife. He felt a little strange without his coat but it was much to hot to walk around in it. Sam seemed to fit in a little better with the crowd even though he towered over most of them. His college boy look fit better, there would always be something a little harder edged in Dean's look. Something in the eyes of a true killer that he couldn't quite hide. Not to say he didn't get a lot of appraising looks from the women around them. It was flattering, even if some were old enough to be his grandmother. The college age girls running around in short shorts with bikini tops had Dean agreeing they should stay for a few days. This was the life. They walked a few minutes until they hit the car show. It lined the main road in town and spread out to various side roads and parking lots. There were cars of every kind, including an entire section of Corvettes from every year. They walked for about two hours and saw every kind of car imaginable except a GTO. Sam stopped in a few shops asking about pieces similiar to the ones they had found at the other attack sites. One shop suggest they try some place called Tlaquepaque. It was further down and sllightly off the main drag. With traffic and parking an issue they decided to go ahead and walk it. Dean was cursing well before they got there.

"You know Sam, we have a car for a reason,"

"Come on Dean, it'll do you good, a little fresh air. I'll buy you a beer when we get there. She said something about a brewery there. Can't be all bad if you can get beer?"

"Yes, it can, it's probably some snooty place filled with yuppies"

They found the shopping center a few minutes later. It looked like an old mission that had been converted into small shops and art galleries. One end had a brewery, so they stopped in for the promised beer. Dean was right, it was kind of a yuppie bar but even he had to admit the beer was good and so was their late lunch. Service was excruciatingly slow and it was much pricier than their normal crappy diner food. Sam was really enjoying his salad so he wasn't about to complain. A couple beers later they wandered out into the shops.


	6. Chapter 6

_Authors Note - The creature discussed in this story does come from Navajo myth however I have made some changes to both how it acts and other items to keep from sharing what may be sacred information. _

Mirai made her apologies to Pastor John and headed out after sunset. She had searched her car top to bottom but couldn't find any tracking devices. Mr. Latino had her a little spooked. If there was a skinwalker after her she was in trouble. She needed to get somewhere far way and get some time to think. She had a lot of weapons on hand to handle most shifters but the y_ee naaldlooshii_ wasn't your average shifter. It was a witch that used animal skins to change. Supposedly they could even steal human bodies. They were experienced trackers and many were fueled by a rage that couldn't be contained. She didn't have what she needed to be able to kill one of those. She would have to head to the Navajo reservation but first she would need to make some more sales. She would need a lot of cash to buy what she needed for the medicine man. She decided to head up to Jerome and Sedona. Those two towns were filled with tourist and arts shops and she could sell a lot of stuff very quickly there. The Sedona Hot Rod show would start July 3rd which would help her keep too many people from noticing her car. It was also not a normal stop for her so maybe the creature wouldn't be able to find her there. She flew past Phoenix, hating the heat and even in the middle of the night it was like driving through a blast furnace. The air cooled significantly outside of the city and became pleasantly warm as she drove through Cottonwood and up to Jerome.

She had a friend who owned a foundry there. She had called from the road to arrange a couch to crash on. Mike was thrilled to see her and settled her into his own bedroom, taking the couch instead. He had been one of her foster fathers students many years ago. Now he made sculptural pieces and was thrilled to pick up some of her jewelery pieces for his shop. She headed out after breakfast with a tray of jewelery enjoying the walk through the modernized ghost town. Every other shop picked up a few of her pieces and she even sold a few to passerby on the street. By lunch, she had sold everything in her tray and was tired, hungry and thirsty so she stepped into the Haunted Hamburger. It had been 12 or so years since she had been to Jerome and she was leased to see her favorite burger shop was still open. She managed to get one of the balcony tables and enjoyed a cold beer, a perfect burger and the view of the Verde Valley. She found herself relaxing a bit as the bustling tourist crowds settled down a bit in the warmth of the afternoon sun. After lunch she headed back to Mike's foundry and soon found herself enlisted to help with a pouring on his latest sculpture. This one was a very lifelike family of quail. The heat from the forge and the exhaustion of the day must of set off her nightmares again. She woke up with Mike trying to hold her back from going out the front door. She had been screaming about the fire and how she had to put it out.

"I am so sorry Lanie, I should have known. The fires. You weren't there but you must still fear it." he handed her a tall glass of scotch and sat with her while she calmed back down.

"I just, I dream it all the time. If I could have just gotten to him he would be safe." she shivered in the cool night air but more from fear.

"Shhh it wasn't your fault, you couldn't have done anything. You were so young. Shhh" he held her and comforted her until the Scotch did it's trick and put her to sleep. He smiled down at her as she slept. She was like a little sister to him and he felt very protective of looked so tiny and fragile as she slept. He pulled a blanket over them and kept watch until dawn.

Mirai, woke with a start, pulled away and then realized who was holding her she relaxed a little bit. Mike had always been like a brother to her. He smiled down at her and then shoved her off as though he had just realized how heavy she was. They had played this out several times over the years. She hit the ground and laughed at him, "Thanks bro, Now, are you going to the car show with me?"

"You and your cars. I will ride up with you, but I am doing an exhibition at Tlaquepaque so I can't wander the show with you. You should stop by the shops, I bet you can sell more of your stuff and you can check out my next masterpiece."

"Sounds good to me. maybe we can catch breakfast somewhere on the way."

They packed up his items into the back seat of her car and headed through Cottonwood up to Sedona. Traffic was a nightmare and the parking lot was pretty packed but they had parking for the exhibitors. Mirai eased her baby in between two old trucks and helped Mike carry his stuff into the shopping center. This place still amazed her. It was a well done replica of a Spanish mission. Instead of monks rooms there were shops and under the bell tower was an art gallery. This place even had a small chapel. This was where Mike was setting up. Well, not in the chapel but just outside in a little courtyard. They set up a few of his smaller pieces to display. The piece he was working on had been stored inside the chapel overnight. It was full sized eagle in flight with a rabbit in it's claws. He had managed to capture the feeling of movement and freedom inherent in a bird that size. Once Mike was settled for the day. Mirai headed out to see about selling a few more items. She figured needed a few thousand more in cash to cover the cost of the various items she would need for the medicine man. The shops were just opening up so it was a good time to catch people before they got busy. After a couple hours in the warm morning sun, she had sold what she needed to and was ready for a break. She stopped off at a local brew pub grabbed a couple burgers to go and brought Mike some lunch. They sat in the shade of a small sycamore tree and enjoyed their lunch.

"Lanie, you are jumpier than usual. Are you willing to share with me?"

"Mike, It's just being here, it's so normal and quiet and filled with people, I can't help but wonder what will go wrong. you know how it is for me." she smiled back. When he had worked with Marcus they had told him a lot of half truths. Basically he thought she had been abused at several foster homes and ran away so many times they had given up on placing her anywhere until Marcus had found her. He attributed her need to carry weapons and her other strange attitudes to the prior abuse.

"Well, you should head on up to the car show. I need to get back to work. But, Lanie, If there is something you can come to me. I know your past didn't give you much reason to trust but I am your friend and I really feel like your big brother so you can come to me." He gave her a quick hug and went back to work on his eagle. In a way she would love to stay and watch him work. His large hands that seemed so clumsy could coax such delicate details out of the clay but she also wanted to go check out the cars. She took the little shuttle bus up to the car show, not wanting to walk in the heat.

At the car show she relaxed a bit. Nothing calmed her quite as much as getting to see the classics she grew up loving. There was a very nice stereo system installed in a dodge charger that had her thinking of changing her set up. She had never heard such crystal clear sound out of a car before but it did take up most of the trunk so she wasn't sure if she could manage it. Another car had an amazing cover that snapped over the wheels and locked underneath to add a layer of theft protection to the car. She got the information from the owner to order one for herself. A little after 5 she realized Mike would want to leave soon so she started to walk back down the hill to meet him. There was one stretch of the walk that ran along the creek on one side. she heard a rustling in the brush and looked over in time to see the shape of a large dog. It moved a little awkwardly and she realized it wasn't a dog, it was the skinwalker. She drew her knife and dropped into a crouch as it launched itself at her, teeth bared and claws out. She drover her knife up into its gut and rolled toward one side. Hot blood cascaded down her side as the creature split open. She was on her feet in seconds and running across the street into the central plaza of the shopping area. She slammed into Mike as he left the chapel locking up his items for the night.

"Mike, you need to find another ride home. I can't explain now but I have to get out of here."

"Lanie? Is that blood? are you hurt? Come on just let me know you're okay."

"It's not mine, I was attacked, by a sort of dog, ... look I know you suspected some of what Marcus did, the weapons, the hunters? I know you weren't blind. He tried to keep you out of it to keep you safe but I know you saw things. This ... this is one of those things and I have to get out of here. It's after me. Please just let me go before it sees you with me."

"Okay, but you call me when you get someplace safe. I can crash with a friend tonight so don't worry about me. Just be careful." he gave her a quick hug on the way to her car. She flew out of the lot, heedless of the people or cars in the way. The screech of brakes as people tried to avoid slamming into her drowned out everything else for a few moments. He stood there until the dust cleared and said a little prayer for her. He trudged back to the chapel to gather the last of his items and figure out where he was going to stay that night. He had known that there was something odd about many of the things Marcus would make and sell. He had long believed in ghosts, you didn't live in Jerome without seeing at least one but he never realized what kind of dangers there could be. Lanie had been covered in some thing's blood and it wasn't just a dog. He picked up his tools and headed out to the front lot. The owner of the art gallery under the bell tower was an old friend, he would let Mike crash in his spare room that night. He would figure out some other way home tomorrow night. He was really worried, it wasn't like Lanie to abandon someone like this. Across the street he could see a group of people standing over some kind of animal body. It could be a dog. Was that what had attacked Lanie? He started to walk across the street when the thing stood up. It was larger than a mastiff and moved a little strangely, not quite like a dog would but maybe it was the injuries. It spun on the group of people and attacked. It was like a rabid creature striking without thought before it turned and ran across the street straight at him.

Mike stopped, caught like a deer in a headlight watching the thing, this was no normal dog, leap over a car and head straight for him. Someone slammed into him from the side and knocked him out of the way. He lay on the ground watching the thing continue to run straight into Tlaquepaque.

Dean shoved himself up, not even caring if the guy he had just slammed into was okay or not. This was the creature they had come to kill and he wasn't going to let it get away.

"There was a chapel in this place. If we can lead it there, we can kill it." shouted Sam as he chased after it.

"Yeah sure, we'll just whistle for it. No problem" Dean yelled back as they ran through the now panicked crowds. They found the creature slamming into the side door of the chapel. Dean laughed, this was going to be easier than he thought. It seemed to have a thing against churches or, he would bet they would find more of those cursed amulets or medallions in there. Whatever, kill the creature then hunt down the witch. He actually looked forward to watching the woman burn, especially after passing the bleeding body of a child. Inside the chapel they found the creature tearing apart the small room. Sam hit it with the angelic blade at the same time Dean slammed his long blade into it's heart. It collapsed to the floor, seemed to fade in and out and then disappeared in a blast of flame.

"That was easy. A little too easy."

"Hey even we deserve an easy kill once in a while."

"What the hell did you do to my eagle?" came a furious voice from the doorway. Dean turned, it was the guy he had pushed out of the way of the creature earlier. Now he noticed the guy was actually pretty big and he looked ready to kill.

"Hey, man, I didn't do anything to your stupid bird. We were chasing a dangerous animal down. You should be thanking me for saving your hide!" snapped Dean.

"Dean, " came Sam's cautioning voice.

"Fine, thanks for saving my life and destroying 2 months worth of work." I don't even have a car here to get more clay or another sculpture or anything. Damn.

Mike started picking up the pieces of his sculpture and gathering up his tools when he realized their was no body, if they had come her to kill an animal where was it? There was blood, a lot of blood but no body.

"Wait, where's the body," he asked the two suspiciously.

"It crawled off to die. My partner here was just about to go after it when you came charging in corrupting our crime scene, I might add" answered Dean slipping into his FBI agent persona.

"Your crime scene is about right. As far as I can tell you just came in here, destroyed my stuff, and made a mess. If you're cops, where's your ID, your backup, how come I don't see any other cops swarming in?"

"They are on the way. You need to put that stuff down and wait outside. You will have to answer some questions. Like why this thing broke into here?" Dean went on the offensive figuring this guy might be the witch. After all he didn't act real scared about any of this, and it was his stuff in the church and the creature followed some kind of spell.

"Yeah, well then I will be outside on the phone with my attorney. The FBI will pay for this damage." snapped Mike as he stepped out.

He immediately dialed Lanie. She didnt' answer but he expected that. The way she drove up the canyon he was thankful she wouldn't attempt to answer the phone.

"Hey, Lanie girl, your trouble might be over. Some FBI guys showed up here and say they killed a wild dog. Hell, it almost killed me. One of them saved my ass but now they've destroyed my Eagle, damaged several other sculptures and there's blood everywhere. I need an attorney and since you are the one who always gets into trouble... well I am hoping you can call one for me." He finished up the message when he realized the tall agent was getting close enough to hear. He sat down on the bench he had shared lunch on earlier and put his head into his hands. He couldn't believe what had happened. He knew Marcus was into some crazy stuff but he didn't realize how crazy until now.

"That wasn't a dog", he muttered at the tall young man. He found it hard to believe this giant with the sheepdog hair was actually FBI but they had badges to prove it.

"It was a trained wolf. We have been tracking it, and the criminal who uses it from California," Sam gave him the story line they had come up with.

"yeah, because someone is going to train a wolf to attack and arts colony? Pull the other one, it has bells."

"Look... what's your name?" smiled Sam, trying a gentler tack.

"It's Mike, Mike Aslan, and you are?"

"Sam, you can call me Sam, my partner in there, he has taken all the attacks very personally. You wouldn't believe the last few weeks. We have had to deal with a lot of dead bodies this thing has left behind. Today when it hit that little town on the other side of the valley, Jerome, I think it was called, was the worst in many ways. There were so many people in harms way up there. I bet they are still moving ambulances out of there.  
"Jerome? It hit Jerome? Oh crap, I need to make a call. My boyfriend is there. He could be hurt. " Mike jumped up and grabbed out his phone, hands shaking he dialed Jake's number.

"Jake? Oh thank god, I just heard, why didn't you call? Well yes I would have worried, but at least I would have know you were okay. Yes, the sale went well but I don't have a ride a back. No, she left, I don't know, she said she was going back to Jerome but then she changed her mind. Yes. I know I shouldn't hitchhike but come on she was a girl, a little one at that," Mike covered when her realized how closely Sam was paying attention. "Yes well, at least her VW bus could fit all my stuff. No I know better, those old hippie types are all the same. Yes, dear, if you could come get me. I would really like that. Love you," he couldn't help but smile at the uncomfortable look on the agent's face.

"Yeah, I'm gay, you gotta problem with that?" he snapped his phone shut and glared up at the agent.

"No, do whatever you gotta do, it just seemed weird, you are kind of.. well, I was just surprised." Sam smiled nervously. Thinking to himself Dean was gonna really get a kick out of this later.

"Look, Mike, we need to find the person responsible for this. We have been chasing her for a while and maybe we managed to kill one of her beasts but there may be more. She has been leaving a trail of destruction over two states. We are looking for a young woman driving a Pontiac... crap, where's Dean he knows this car crap... it's a GOT, Ogt..a "

"Pontiac GTO?" piped in Mike, realizing they were after the closest thing he had to a sister.

"Yes, that's it. Have you seen one of those. The only description we got of the girl was that she is vaguely youngish with sort of darkish but maybe blondish hair driving a dark colored 67 to 69 GTO. She sells jewelery and pendents and stuff like that. We think somehow she uses these to lure the creature to where she wants it to attack."  
"There is a car show going on. I think I saw a car like that today. It wasn't a girl driving it though, it was young man with really long hair, kind of feminine features so maybe they only thought it was a girl? Brown hair with highlights in it. He was selling some stuff, I bought a necklace off of him. It's somewhere in that mess. I was going to give it to Jake. Do you think that's why that thing destroyed all my stuff? He seemed so nice. I can't believe he was some kind of criminal. You must be mistaken." Mike started to cover for his sister. Hoping he could send these guys on a goose chase. Whatever Lanie might be into he knew she wouldn't have killed anyone.

"Did he say where he was heading next?" Sam motioned Dean over.

"Yes, I think he said he was heading to Prescott... it's just over Mingus Mountain. He was going to go through Jerome and Perkinsville. He had asked me for directions, that's how I know what he was driving. I warned him it was a bad idea to take that road in a car but he said he could do it," Mike was sweating it a bit now, sure they knew he was lying. He didn't care as long as it bought Lanie a few minutes. She would get his message soon. Hopefully she would see the hidden warning and get some place safe.

"You hear that Dean, I think we have a lead. A solid lead. We should go."

"I don't know, Sam, something isn't making sense."

Mike started to freak inwardly sure they were going to bust him when the Sedona Police finally started arriving.

Dean snapped to attention. There was something very military like in his stance and he started to bark orders to the police arriving. "About time you got here. The animal crawled away, we think it went into that creek back there. Someone needs to search the creek. We need to figure out if this thing was rabid or what else might have been wrong with it. We need a crew of crime scene techs in that chapel over there, and this guy was a witness, someone needs to take his statement."

Mike let the police lead him away, trying to figure out what he could tell them without risking Lanie or causing any other problems.

Dean walked around a bit making sure people bought his FBI act then he pulled Sam aside and they slipped away to walk back to their car. He was cursing Sam's idea of walking even more as they climbed the steep slope back to the Impala.

"Sam, that guy was lying to us. He was covering for someone. I bet that girl seduced him or something. He was sending us the wrong direction. Why would she have driven all this way to turn around and go backthorugh the town she had already decimated? Plus Marge may have been old but Jeremiah and your angel shop girlfriend said it was a girl"

"He said it was a guy, and I don't think he would be seduced by a girl. He's gay Dean," Sam explained everything Mike had said to him. "He seemed genuinely worried about what happened in Jerome, I don't think he was involved."

"He was covering. Get the map out. We are going exactly opposite of where he suggested." they pulled out the map and decided they would head up to Flagstaff. Sam had learned when to argue with Dean and when it would prove hopeless to do so. This was not a time to argue. Sam had fond memories of Flagstaff but he had learned not to mention those to Dean. Dean hated Flagstaff, it was a reminder of another time he hadn't kept watch over Sam and the trouble he got into for it. The drive up the canyon was harrowing in the dark and Sam was secretly glad they had gotten stuck behind a long line of slow cars, forcing Dean to take it at a sensible speed. Dean was chomping at the bit ready to kill everyone on the road in front of him before they even made it halfway up the canyon. It was in some ways a wonderful drive, it had cooled down enough to ride with the windows open smelling the creek and the blackberries as they moved up the canyon the scents changed to include fresh pine. They reached Flagstaff a little after 11 PM exhausted. They pulled into the first place with a vacancy sign, climbed into bed and crashed for the night.


	7. Chapter 7

Mirai could feel the rear end trying to fishtail as she squealed out of the parking lot. Only twenty years of driving the beast allowed her to keep it on the road. She knew she had only injured the creature. Without the right items from a Navajo Medicine Man there was no way to kill it. She did figure it would be unable to chase her for at least a while. She could stop in Flagstaff tonight. Tomorrow she would call in a favor and get a reference for a medicine man, then she would disappear onto the reservation. The skinwalker would have to be more careful on the reservation. They were hard to kill but they could be captured by people who knew what to do. She would just have to hope she would buy herself enough time.

"Dammit, she yelled as she shot past another annoying tourist. She was taking the hairpin curves at almost triple the speed limit and would go faster if these tourists would just stay out of the way. She had more close calls than ever before and probably scared the hell out of a lot of people before she forced herself to slow down a little. It would be just her luck to end up dying in a car crash after everything else she had faced plus she didn't want to be responsible for killing an innocent person. She still made good time up the hill and was in Flagstaff before 7PM.

She checked into a little dive motel on the east side of town and threw a tarp over her baby. Something was tracking her and she didn't know how. She had searched the car twice and couldn't find took a taxi downtown instead. It would be easy to hide in the 4th of July crowds. Walking through the center of downtown she noticed quite a few changes in what she considered her home town. One of the biggest was a new burger place where her old mechanic's shop used to be. She hesitated a moment as it was called Diablo Burger but figured it might be safest. No monster would actually be in a place like that. They tried to hide better than that, plus the long lines leading into it boded well for the food. While she waited in line she pulled out her phone to call Mike and apologize again.

She noticed a voice mail from him. "FBI? Oh Crap," slipped out of her mouth garnering her a few concerned looks from the couple in front of her. "And a wild dog?" now the couple avoided looking at her, assuming she was just another crazy. "That's just great."

She immediately called up a local attorney. He had handled all of her legal issues before Jeb had taken her away. She reached his answering service." Hey, Ben, I have a client for you. His name is Mike Aslan, and he is apparently being questioned by the FBI down in Tlaquepaque right now. Something about a wild dog and they destroyed some of his sculptures. I can vouch for him, he's gentle as a lamb. He can pony up whatever you need for a retainer. If he offers you one of his sculptures ask for the quail. It's going to be exquisite and will look great in your office."

She smiled at the couple in front of her who had turned around not even bothering to hide their curiosity now. "Sorry about that, my brother seems to end up with all sorts of weird issues. He's an artiste'" she smiled at them. It was funny how much you could get away with if you just smiled at people.

She was finally at the front of the line about to order when the clerk began what must have been his normal spiel, " This is a cash only restaurant, we do not take credit cards or checks and yes I will need an ID for the beer." he said not even looking up from the register. "Oh, so 'no credit cards' on the door and the menu board and on the back of your register really means no credit cards at all?" she smiled sweetly as she handed him her ID.

He looked up and laughed." I think you are the first person today to have read any of those. Now what can we get you?"

"I'll take that burger with the egg on it, some fries and a dark beer, porter, stout whatever." she laughed back.

"That'll be $16.75,"

"Damn, these better be some really awesome burgers, what do you use, unicorn meat?" she handed him a $20 and waived off the change.

"Well, we don't normally let people know, but it is actually unicorn meat that is grilled over the heat of a burning Phoenix. " He handed her a beer, her receipt and a little sign with a number.

She laughed as she walked away and began to wonder if this place really was run by the devil. Maybe they did actually serve unicorn. She fought her way through the crowd to the outside seating. She ended up sharing a table with a group of German tourists. The beer was strong and just cold enough for her taste. She found it strangely comforting to share a table with people she couldn't understand very clearly. It made her look like she wasn't alone but allowed her an excuse to not talk. She texted Mike to let him know an attorney would be calling him shortly and that she was okay and would call him later. It took about 30 minutes for her burger to come, in the meantime one of the Germans brought her another beer. The burger ended up being well worth the money and the wait.

She hung around with the Germans for a while, even buying a round of beers at the next bar. Somewhere during the night they ended up at a bar in east Flagstaff that was filled with taxidermied animals. It was this crazy log cabin like building filled with all these dead animals. The country music wasn't her idea of fun but she gave a few shots at dancing with her new found friends before slipping out the back door and walking back to her hotel. She set her alarm for a brutal 5 am wake up so she she could get started early. Dancing had worked off most of the beer so she ended up thrashing in nightmares again. it always came back to fire, her home burning not once, not twice but several times. It was much worse this year than ever before. Marcus had tried to convince her to get help but she had been fine at first, then after he was gone she didn't know who she could trust so she worked through it best she could but now it was getting worse. Maybe she should have asked Mike, maybe just talked to him. She snorted at the thought of sharing all of the crazy with him and shook off the tangled blankets. She threw on a tank top and jeans, slid her pistol into the holster she had designed for herself. With her hips it was almost impossible to find a holster that would work and remain concealed. This one worked all right and with a long fairly lightweight flannel shirt over the top no one could spot the outline of her Berreta.

She packed up all of her stuff, pulled the cover off the GTO and headed downtown again. She had noticed a couple of coffee shops that might just do the trick. She ended up at a complete hippie place. It had been around since the early 80's and had some of the best coffee and vegan pastries in town. She didn't really care about vegan but the coffee and the chance to people watch was the real draw. There were people from all walks of life there. Sitting in a back corner she gulped down an amazing scone - not cranberry, she avoided those now, but chocolate espresso beans on the other hand, well, some things were worth it. She sipped her first cup from the French Press and texted Martin Yellowhorse. "Having coffee at Macy's, join me." She settled in knowing he would show up eventually and until then she could just enjoy the people watching. The music was some kind of light jazz mixed with the occasional hoobastank. She had finished up her second French press when she saw Martin partway down the block. She was a strange mix of wired and exhausted and wasn't sure she was ready to call in this marker. Five years ago he had come to her for a special weapon. He had wanted to kill the Y_ee naaldlooshii_ that had killed most of his family. She had the ability at the time but not the knowledge. She had made it for free with the understanding that she would eventually call in the marker. Some of the supplies she needed were only available from a medicine man. There were oils from plants, certain soils and other items that were gathered and bless by the medicine man. She would then have to create the short spear from a white pine branch, anoint it with the items, and then participate in a "Sing" or blessing to add the power she needed. She would have to do all this while hoping the creature didn't find her first. Once she had the spear it would be a matter of just driving it into the creatures heart, preferably without getting her own guts ripped out. She didn't know if she would be able to do it. She had gotten lucky yesterday with the knife. She had some self defense training but she knew her limits. Maybe she would find a Hunter to help her out. As she waitied for Martin she realized this may be the best idea she had in years.

"Heya pretty lady," smiled Martin as he sat down with a pecan sticky bun the size of a dinner plate.

"Heya yourself" she smiled back. She let him finish his breakfast and chatted over light things knowing that Navajo's preferred to chat, share coffee and relax a little before getting down to business. It was easy for her to slow down and fall back into that way of thinking. Her Navajo foster family hadn't been too bad out of all of them, as long as the Dad stayed away from the whiskey. The third time, he had broken several of her ribs so she had been pulled out and moved to another family. She missed the good parts, the slow and easy way of looking at life, the joy of making fry bread, and even the mutton stew.

Once he had finished the sticky bun she took a deep breath and realized it was time to get to it. "Martin, it's time. I need to pull in that marker. I think one of those is after me. I need to make a spear." It was strange to be discussing something so profound and frightening in the packed coffee shop but it was like moving full circle to how everything started.

Martin leaned back and took a few deep breaths, she could see the flash of pain in his eyes and knew he was reliving the night his family had been slaughtered. He had escaped the creatures notice and slipped out the back door while it ripped apart his mother. He had run the several miles to his uncle's house. Eventually, after consulting several medicine men he had set off to track down a weapons smith to make the spear he needed to kill that creature. His side and arm still bore the scars of that final battle and his hand moved involuntarily to touch them before he answered her.

"There is a Hatali up at Naatsis'Aan that can do the sings. He will need you to help him gather some of the items, he isn't young anymore. But are you sure you want to do this, you could go into hiding, let someone else deal with it. It won't be easy."

"I am sure, it's following me somehow, I don't think I can hide and I am sure it's killing, a lot. I can't have that blood on my hands. I have some of the items he will want, and I have cash, a lot of cash, I can buy him a herd of sheep if that's what it takes. Please tell me how to find him."

"I will go with you, He's teaching me the sing. I will help you. If not for you, that ... that creature would have eventually killed me and the rest of my clan."

"You, you are training to be a medicine man? That's amazing, I mean really great. Can we leave now? I want... I need this to be over."

"I need to at least pack a bag and call him first. How about we meet at noon at the train station instead? You can run to the grocery store and get us supplies. Make sure you grab a couple cases of water too."

"Okay, but there is no snacking in my car. I guess I can let you drink water in it," she jumped out of her chair, grabbed up her stuff and took off to find the nearest grocery store.

It felt good to have a plan in motion, she found herself feeling a bit of hope for the first time since she had realized what was after her. She found a few items that wouldn't be too messy as she thought about the four hour drive ahead of them. She might have to allow for some snacking in the car.

Just before noon she pulled into the train station parking lot. There was a spot under a tree at the east end so she parked there and sat on the trunk while she waited for Martin. He was walking up from the side street when she spotted a large canine like creature moving in along the train tracks, She shouted a warning to Martin who looked where she pointed and then began to run. He dropped his pack and other items and sprinted towards the car, Mirai pulled her 38, knowing it wouldn't kill the creature but hoping it would at least slow it. Her first shot was a little high, the second caught it in the chest, the third and fourth hit along it's flank as it leaped onto Martin's back. Claws shredded into his back as he was shoved to the ground. Mirai emptied the chamber into the creature, heedless of the screams of the families running away from the gun fire. The creature looked straight at her then ran a few paces before it disappeared in a flash of smoke. In moments she was cradling Martin's head in her lap. "Go... go to the chapter house, the Hatali will be waiting there," he whispered with what might be his last few ragged breaths. She was surrounded by a crowd of people. "Call 911," she stood up and shouted at the first person she saw. Everyone backed up and she realized she was still holding the now empty gun. "Get him help, the thing was rabid, I need to... I need to go!" the crowd parted for her. As she ran to the car she noticed a few people on their phones and hoped the ambulances would make it in time. She had to get moving, the creature was after her, if she could get away from people at least no one else would suffer for her. Gravel sprayed the crowd as she pulled out onto Route 66 heading east. She was truly on the run now as she was sure a description of her car was being radioed to police cars everywhere. She flew through town heading out to I-40. There was a Hunter's bar out at Houck, it was the wrong direction for Navajo Mountain but she needed someplace safe to think. A bar full of Hunters would be the safest bet for now. She topped out at 120 on the highway ignoring the sirens and hoping they wouldn't manage a road block before she could get to safety.

She managed to find a side road that took her through the desert a bit. The dirt road was slightly wet and muddy from the early monsoons. They would continue searching the highway for a dark GTO. Instead she was now in a red mud covered car on side roads. The thick red dust was actually clay and would stick and cover her car as efficiently as repainting it would. It took some crisscrossing old forest and ranch roads but she eventually made it to Houck. When she pulled into Slacker's she breathed a sigh of relief to see the multiple GTOs she had left there over the years were still scattered around the lot. She paid Jonathon a monthly parking fee to keep her parts cars here. No-one would notice another GTO in the lot. She headed in hoping to find a hunter or two to take with her on the last leg of the trip.


	8. Chapter 8

Dean woke earlier than usual groaning at the sun angling in from the partly open curtains. Damn, should have closed those last night he thought as he struggled awake. Sam was sprawled on the other twin bed snoring softly while Dean started up the coffee maker. With the creature dead they only had the witch to worry about. Flagstaff was bigger than he remembered and it might be harder to find a vaguely described woman and a classic car but they had to try. The coffee smell woke up Sam and they sat quietly drinking their coffee.

Sam was on his laptop looking at the Flagstaff visitor website.

"Hey Dean, they have a really big Church here, and a bunch of shops downtown. If she follows her normal pattern, and if you are right about it being a her, and if she came here, then she might try to sell stuff downtown. We can take a look this morning. If it's a bust we could still be in Prescott by nightfall."

"Sam, I know I'm right, that guy was covering for her. I wish we had more time before the real cops showed up. I could have gotten it out of him" growled Dean with a look that worried Sam. He knew what his brother was capable of and he didn't want to think of a human, a civilian, going through that.

They finished up their coffee, packed up, and headed downtown. It took a bit to find parking for the Impala but they finally found a spot just north of the main area of downtown, near the church Sam had been talking about. They headed into the gargoyle covered building but no one had seen a girl that morning and there were no St. Dunstan's medals anywhere. They wallked down from there and began asking at the various shops. Around 11:00 they were both getting hungry having skipped breakfast so they stopped into a place one of the store clerks had recommended.

"Diablo Burger? Really, can't we even have a burger without the devil being involved somehow?" joked Sam.

"Come on Sammy, there's a girly salad place next door, you can have your salad to keep your girlish figure and I can enjoy a real man's meal." teased Dean as the walked up to the place. Dean blanched at the cost but 20 minutes later as he bit into one of the best burgers of his life he didn't regret the cost anymore. Sam meanwhile had gone to the salad place and they sat outside enjoying the warm sunshine and the view of the pretty young ladies walking around in short shorts and skirts. Dean was just finising the last bite of burger and fries when they heard the first gunshot. People started looking around when a second, third and fourth shot followed. Sam and Dean were in motion before the third and were on a south bound street when Dean counted number six. They reached the main drag, Route 66 just in time to see a midnight blue GTO fishtail out of a parking lot heading east. Looking over to where it had pulled out they could see a crowd of people surrounding a man bleeding on the ground, sirens were coming closer. Dean cursed, turned around and ran towards the Impala with Sam on his heels. The three blocks up to the car seemed to take forever. He fired up the Impala and headed for the main road and turned East. They followed the police cars towards the edge of town and out onto the highway.

"Damn it, we won't catch her in that car and unless these cops set up a road block they won't either. That wasn't a stock engine there was a mod of some kind."

They continued down the freeway keeping to the speed limit as police car after police car flew past them.

"Oh, and Sammy, I told you so" smirked Dean

"So what's the plan now. Apparently she has turned to just killing people the old fashioned way. What are we going to do?"

"We are going to Slacker's, that's what we are going to do."

"Slacker''s?"  
"There's a Hunter's bar up the road a ways in a town called Huck or Hock or something like that. We can talk to some other hunters, we might need some help on this one."

"A Hunter's bar, like Ellen's?"

"Well, better protected. This place, it's pretty awesome. Remember Jonathon, that old Hunter dad would somtimes meet up with? Well, after he lost his leg he opened up this place. It's safe Sam, probably one of the only safe places anywhere anymore. "

"Safe? Are you going into hiding Dean?" came a familiar voice from the back seat of the car.

"Damn Cas, you need to quit doing that. I could have run off the road." Dean yelled at the man reflected in his rear view. He was secretly glad to see the angel, they might need the help. Who knows how what that witch was capable of.

"I am sorry Dean, but I was called away. I came as soon as I could. Where are you going? What's with all of those cars?" Castiel hated to hide things from Dean but sometimes Dean just didn't understand.

"That witch controlling those Gevaudon creatures was in Flagstaff, another man was attacked or she shot him. We finally saw the car, well sort of saw it, it was dark, I think black and we were trying to follow it. Instead, I decided we need to go to Slacker's and find some other hunters to help us out. About 20 miles out, Dean realized they needed to fill up the tank. They pulled into a gas station and started pumping while Sammy went to get something to drink. One of the workers was standing outside watching the cars go by.

"Are you guys coming from Flag?" he asked Dean.

"Yeah, we've been following one cop car after another."

"The radio says they're after some woman who was involved in a rabid dog attack. They think she was trying to kill some poor Navajo," the kid responded and then headed back inside.

"She has another one but couldn't wait for it to the trick. She is getting more and more dangerous," muttered Dean.

"Dean, a witch can't have more than one Gevaudon! Are you sure you killed it?" asked Cas.

"I am sure, we killed it in a chapel and it disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Maybe the witch has some other familiar or maybe you are wrong and they can have several."

A moment later Cas shoved Dean to the side as a man appeared next to them.

The dark haired man smiled cruelly, "You should have done a better job when you shot me." He laughed as he pulled a wolf's head over his face and shifted, becoming a giant wolf. It looked like the same wolf they had killed in that chapel. The wolf leaped at Dean but Cas slammed his Angelic blade into it's side and drove it to the ground. It disaappeared in a flash again.

"Not a Gevaudon Dean. That was not a Gevaudon," Cas cleaned the blood from his blade. "We need to get out of here. It sees it was tracking you and might come back."

Sam stepped out of the store before Dean could reply. The entire thing was out of site of the store so they had to catch Sam up on what happened as they climbed into the car and took off down the freeway. The desert drive was long and Dean had turned up his classic rock cassettes to keep from having to talk. They were back to step one, they still didn't know what that was, they didn't know where that witch was, and now apparently the creature was able to track them.

Dean breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the Houck was starting to go a little stir crazy with Castiel staring at him from the back seat and Sam peering out the window letting out periodic sighs at the empty desert land. The little bar was about five miles south of the freeway. As soon as he pulled into the parking lot Dean felt a little better until he saw the black GTO in the back of the lot, and a blue one, and a red one.

"What the hell is this, GTO's are us?" he muttered as he noted another dark blue one. He led Sam and Cas into the bar as the sun set spectacularly over the desert. The bar looked like an oversize shack with a tin roof and walls. It had been a small warehouse at some point before being changed into a bar. The parking lot was surrounded by an 8' wrought iron fence. There were a couple hunters patrolling the lot. This place had spells and other tricks that kept out the supernatural, only a white witch that had been invited by the owner could even get into the parking lot. Dean figured the extra GTOs must be just a weird coincidence. With all of the GTO's in the lot he didn't even notice the one covered in a thick layer of red dust and mud just a few cars away from the Impala.

The bar was filled with a heavy layer of cigarette smoke and the smell of old beer. The boys found a table between the bar and the unlit woodstove in the back and flagged down one of the servers for some beers all around. Cas sat with them for a while then stepped out a little overwhelmed by the noise and chaos. Dean however was his element and shortly later was into his third beer while Sam was searching the internet for any clues as to what they may be looking for.

Scattered among the stressed out heavy drinking guys were the occasional women, most looking rode hard and put away wet. Younger prettier girls were either running drinks to the tables or looking for a quick thrill or an easy $20 from the hunters. Their eyes had followed Sam and Dean as they moved through the bar. After all they were young, fit, unscarred and already legends in the hunter lore.

Slackers was unique in that they had anti-Angel and Demon sigils built in the iron frame. It wouldn't stop angels from entering but it would keep them from finding it. Demons couldn't even walk onto the property. It was surrounded by steel rails and posts and had multiple other safety measures. The owner was a retired hunter, well at least no longer active after a monster took one of his legs while he was out drinking. He was determined to create a safe place for hunters to relax and even hired a few hunters every night to add extra protection. Dean loved this place, he could always catch the eye of one of the many groupies seeking to spend a night with a hunter. He never understood why women were so bent on being with a Hunter but would take the offer any day. He was eying a pretty blond across the room when a fight began breaking out a little behind him.

"Fuck you SOB, I delivered what you ordered. Just because you weren't clear with the Smith doesn't mean you can screw me over."

"Look little girly, the Smith was supposed to make me something I could use! Not this little toothpick."

Sam and Dean turned to watch the argument, they never really fully relaxed even here where they were supposed to be safe so they wanted to keep an eye on things. Plus the first voice had sounded like it came from a fairly small woman. It was a little deep and gravelly, like she had spent a few to many years in smoky bars drinking too much whiskey. Sam saw the little slip of a girl standing face to belly with one of the largest hunters he had ever seen and began debating if he should step in a break it up before it got out of hand. Her long black hair and bulky flannel shirt hid most of her face and figure from view but she looked tiny and delicate compared to the brute in front of her. Dean was now intrigued at this little 5'8" woman standing up to what looked like a troll, in fact behind his back and very far away that's what the other hunters called Brutus. Brutus was 6'10" tall and built like a steam engine. He was towering over the girl and waving a 10" knife like it was a pocket knife. Hell, for him it probably was a pocket knife. Both of the boys were now moving towards the fight figuring they would need to step in quickly or this girl was going to be squashed like a bug.

"You told the Smith you needed something to kill a Kitsuni, well, there it is, you need a slim blade to reach the heart and if you had any clue how to use a knife you would know that you actually need less than 6". He even made the hilt to fit your oafish hand you big troll!" the girl had hit a nerve with that one and Dean knew she was about to be in trouble. Even he wouldn't have called Brutus a troll to his face. Of course she had to crane her neck back to say it to him so it was kind of more to his stomach than his face. A crowd had begun to gather around them as the argument seemed to escalate. "Look you stupid moron, either give me the cash owed or give me the knife."

Dean was already on the move as soon as he heard those words, he knew exactly what Brutus was about to do. Dean was pushing through the back of the crowd as Brutus smiled, "Ok, Girly, I'll give you back your little prick" as he shift his grip and began driving the knife down at the girl. Dean was cursing as he shoved through the crowd knowing he was going to be too late to do more than mop up her blood and burst through just in time watch Brutus crumble to the ground in slow motion clutching his groin as the girl picked up the knife and cracked him on the back of the head with the base of the hilt.

"Thanks Jackass, hopefully you will remember me fondly as your parts heal, of course they may never fully recover but your head seems to be mostly rock anyway."

The crowd melted in front of her as she moved to the back door. Dean chased after her. He had to meet the woman who could take down Brutus like that. He burst out the back door and instinctively ducked when he felt a rush of air to his left. He narrowly missed a roundhouse kick to his head. "Hey slow down, I'm not here to hurt you, I just wanted to be sure you were okay"

"Of course the big bad Dean Winchester coming to my rescue, oh be still my beating heart" came that same whiskeyed voice. The fight had shifted her hair and Dean got a good look at her almost elfin face. She had a delicacy to her he would never have imagined from the way she stood up to the hunter in there. The knife that had looked tiny in Brutus's hand looked like a sword in hers. She was walking past him even as tried to form an answer. Before he could say anything, she cut him off' "Oh my god is that a 1967 Impala? Bet its the 327 or maybe the 427, hey dumbass, stop gaping and tell me if you know who belongs to that gorgeous baby?" she didn't even give him time to respond before she went on "Of course it's The Impala, can I see under her hood, I have heard about this baby of yours, I just didn't think she'd be so pretty. Come on, show me yours and I'll show you mine?" The change in her was amazing. the smile that spread across her face the pure joy in her tone made her suddenly more beautiful. When he first saw her face she was pretty in a delicate way, but at most a 6, really he had considered setting her up with Sam figuring Sam's standards were lower but now she was a solid 8. No way was he sharing this chance with his idiot kid brother. Dean gave her his best charmer smile as they approached his one true love. He popped open the hood and in seconds she was underneath it it. "Wow you have a full ... and chromed out air cleaner, what about the drive train what do you have under there. Is she stock? She was flitting around like a caffeinated ferret, Dean forgotten as she climbed in out and over the car. She had the trunk open, and was digging under the false bottom before he even realized what she was doing. "Hey wait a second there," he started

"Dammit, you can't store this like this" she cut him off, and don't you ever clean your blades, the blood will pit the metal. You can't lay this next..."

Dean grabbed one of his favorite knives out of her hand " stop that, what are you doing? This is private" The crushed look on her face left him feeling like a real jerk. He felt like he had just kicked a puppy. "Hey, I'm sorry but that's my baby you are digging through, you can't just grab a guys junk like that... well you can grab his JUNK but not root through his car, I mean... Well, you did say you would show me yours?" he recovered fairly quickly. This wouldn't be the first girl he had in the back seat of the Impala, and it wouldn't be the last.

She smiled again "Okay, Lets go". He was left confused as she turned and started walking away from his car. He slammed the trunk and followed her quickly. He was looking forward to this one, she seemed ready and raring to go. Damn I still have it he thought to himself. The excitement shifted as she led him down the row to a dust covered Pontiac GTO. He could just see through the dust the dark paint job and he slowed down.

The hood was up in a second and she was waiting up front for him. He began to realize this might be trouble but he decided he needed to follow through to figure out more about her. The car had been very carefully restored and cared for under the thick layer of dust and mud. He had a feeling this was the witch he was looking for. He hesitated to act immediate because he couldn't figure out how she could have gotten into Slackers. Either he was wrong.. which he seldom was... or she was very powerful. He was only half listening as he heard her say something about how anti-angel and demon sigils were cared into the engine block, the frame, layered under the paint, stitched into the seats and the carpet.

"Wait, you're a hunter?"

"What, me? Oh hell no!, I am neither stupid nor crazy. I am a delivery girl, a very special messenger and delivery girl," she started to answer him when something grabbed his shoulder and flung him across the parking aisle and into the side of a beat up El Camino. Dean shook his head trying to clear it from the concussion and the pain exploding in his already beat up body. He could barely see Brutus across the parking lot attacking the girl. He had his gun out before he even got to his feet. He was a little shaky still and his vision was a little blurred from the impact and the pain. So he couldn't be sure what he was seeing was fully real but it looked like Brutus was getting his butt kicked again by the little woman. Sam and several others from the bar were moving across the lot but they were still too far away. The girl wasn't stupid, she had a good sized iron bar in one hand and the knife from earlier in the other. She used the bar to take out Brutus's knee, took the knife to his side and shoulder. She seemed to alternate between the two moving quickly in and out of Brutus's reach. He had no chance against her speed but Dean knew it would take one hit from those giant paws to take her out. It seemed she knew it too and was fighting with a desperation he had rarely seen. Her luck or speed ran out and Brutus landed a good hit to her side. She crumpled to the ground struggling to crawl away. Dean finally stepped in cracking Brutus over the head with the bar the girl had dropped. He needed answers from her and didn't want her dead yet.

"I don't need you to rescue me you arrogant bastard," Mirai snapped although she had been developing a plan to get the famous Winchester brothers to help her. She wasn't used to being on the losing end, wasn't used to asking for help and snapped at him instead of thinking it through. She hadn't really had to fight like this in a long time and never someone that much bigger. Her plan was blown to hell now, she just wanted to go someplace quiet and take some pain killers.

"Dammit, she cursed climbing to her feet. She didn't like the look they were giving her as she backed away. The crowd moved apart as she climbed in to her car. Several of them were on the way to help Brutus but mostly they seemed to figure this was a typical night for a hunter bar. The cloud of dust as she sped out of the lot had him coughing a bit.

Sam laughed "your girlfriend just took off."

"I don't know what the hell she is, but it's not my girlfriend" growled Dean. "I think that was the witch we were following. We need to follow her."

"Dean, you said this place was protected, how did she get in here?"

"Maybe she's just that powerful. I don't know."

They started to head to Impala when several hunters stepped in their way.

"Where do you think you are going? You stay here until we know Brutus will make it. If he's okay,then you get to go. So turn right around, head into the bar and have a drink while we wait for Doc to get done.

"What about the girl? She hit him as much as I did, aren't you going after her."

"You took him down, you need to stay. That girl just bruised his pride and she was defending herself. You stepped in when you shouldn't have."

Dean realized they had no chance of catching the girl now and these guys meant business. They might as well had back in and hope that Cas would wander back in and they could send him after her.

"Dean, are you really just going to go back and drink?" asked Sam as they sat back down in the bar.

"She's long gone by now, Sammy. We might as well wait for them to realize the only thing I hurt was Brutus's head. He'll be fine and then we can figure something else out."

Sam just shook his head. He never really figured out how his brother could just let go when things like this happened. Minutes ago he was on the track of the witch and now he was relaxing with cold beer and a shot of whiskey or at least he appeared to be. Underneath the apparently calm exterior, Dean was seething. He wanted to find this witch and rip her apart. He was frustrated with the wait and sick of all these hunters surrounding them. Little did he know they were trying to give Lanie time to get away. Many of them had purchased weapons from the Smith in the past and they knew if something happened to Lanie, they would not get any more of those weapons. They didn't know why Dean wanted to chase her down but they figured they would buy her a little time.

Several hours and a lot of beers later they let the Winchesters leave.

" Lets just get a room next door and start of fresh in the morning," said Dean as he led the way back to the Impala, still a little shaky from hitting the El Camino with his head. The beer and whiskey he poured down his throat, didn't help. Sam grabbed the keys from him after his third try to get them into the door. He was hurting bad enough he let Sam put him in the back seat and drive to the local hotel. Cas was nowhere to be seen, again. Dean was getting tired of this appear and then disappear again crap. He just didn't have the energy to do anything about it anymore. Sam helped him into the room and let him collapse on the bed nearest the door. He was barely aware of Sam pulling his boots off and then he was out for the night.

The sunlight streamed across Dean's face as he rolled away from the window and slid his arm over the body next to him, getting a face full of hair. Dean jumped half out of the bed before realizing the body next his was a girl curled up half asleep. It was the girl from last night. What was she doing in his bed? He remembered coming in with Sam, remembered falling into bed and then nothing. He was still dressed so it wasn't that. Mirai rolled over and smiled at him. Dean glanced around the room, Sam was sprawled across the other bed, the door was closed and locked, everything in its place.

"How did you get in here? " he started moving toward Sam's pistol on the table.

"Your boyfriend let me in."

"Boyfriend? Why does everyone think my brother is my boyfriend?" shouted Dean as he moved another few steps to the table. He was a little uncertain what she might be capable of.

"No, silly the man who was watching you so closely in the bar last night, trench coat, tie?" she smiled back and pulled the cover over her legs.

"Cas?"

"She needed someplace safe Dean, I didn't think you would mind. You have shared your bed before and I knew she would be safe with you," came Cas's gravelly voice from the front door area. He hadn't noticed the angel there when he woke up.

"Cas! you can't just do that. She could be dangerous. I think she's the one responsible for that Gavdadeaun thing. Whatever the shapeshifter thing is. Now we are in danger. She doesn't need our help, she's the bad guy! Damn it she could have killed both us in our sleep." Dean yelled as he made the final step to the table and swept up the pistol.

His yelling finally woke Sam, who turned to look surprised at Dean pointing his pistol at a dark haired girl curled up in the other bed. Instinctively he pulled his knife out as he waited. The girl lay very still watching Dean closely as Cas stepped between her and Dean.

"She is not the bad guy here Dean. She is in danger, that creature is not a Gavadaun and it's after her. She has certain skills. I think it has figured out how to track the charms she puts into her items. She is not controlling it."  
"How do you know that? You have been wrong before."

"This isn't the first time I have saved her."

"What?" came the surprised yelp from both Dean and Mirai.

"I pulled her out of a fire and a demon attack when she was younger."

"You?, You are the one who dumped me in Lawrence? How? Why? Why didn't you save Marcus?" cried out Mirai sitting up. There were so many questions and she couldn't get them all out now that she finally knew who had saved her all those years ago.

Sam sat up more confused than ever. He wasn't quite sure what he had woken up to but this was getting weirder and strangely soap opera like.

"Dean, please put the gun down and let's talk this through. She is not a danger to you. She needs our help more than even she realizes."  
Dean was surprised how determined Cas was about this. He sat down at the table and put the gun down but kept his hand on it. Ready to shoot her if necessary.

Mirai sat up straighter in the bed adjusting a large shirt she had fallen asleep in. It took Sam took a moment to realize it was one of his. She was hurting from the hit that guy gave her last night and it showed in her stiffness.

"Okay but I have a few questions that I want answered before we go any further. First, What's your name and why were you in my bed?"

"I go by Lanie," Mirai started to say but Cas jumped in at the same time saying, "Her name is Mirai."

"Strike one, lying to me already. Strike three and you're out, permanently!" glared Dean shifting the gun to point at her.

"I haven't used Mirai in years. I have been in danger most of my life, I don't let people know who I really am, where I am from or anything that can lead someone to me. It's not lying, it's safety. And to answer the second part of your question, your boyfriend there, let me in. I considered climbing in with your brother, but let's face it, he takes up the whole bed plus a little bit, so there wasn't much room there. I am hurt, and I needed to sleep and the floor is cold. I figured your bed would be safe, your boyfriend said he would keep watch and check for the _yee naaldlooshii _and so I figured he wouldn't mind me taking his spot."

"He ... is... not... my... boyfriend!" Dean spat out the words, one by one. "I don't have a boyfriend, Sam is NOT my boyfriend, Cas is not my boyfriend! Why don't people get it? Why does everyone think I am gay?" Dean was really sick of this.

"You are attractive, really overly butch, and obviously care for Sam, and the way Cas stands so close to you, as though he wants to be very close to you. I just figured you were... well close to him too. It's not an insult you know. He is at least as attractive as you are so it's kind of a complement to think he and you belong together," Mirai was a little flustered now that she realized she had been cuddled up to Dean most of the night and it wasn't nearly as platonic as she was thinking so of course she was running her mouth off. Her mouth usually seemed to overtake her brain especially when she was scared and right now she was very scared. If the creature didn't get her Dean might just shoot her and she thought she might have something broken from that punch from that troll last night. It hurt to breathe.

Dean found it harder to think now that Cas was no longer blocking his view of her. She looked so helpless wrapped up in Sammy's favorite flannel shirt. He wanted to believe she was the cause of the evil, but sitting there, looking at him with that slightly defiant look, she looked like she needed his help instead. Of course, she might still be a witch, in fact maybe that's a spell she's casting right now to delude all of them. He was torn between believing her and fearing her.

"Great, so I'm hot so I must be gay... and Cas, I thought we had discussed this before. Personal space man, personal space. "

"Yes, and I give you more space now." Cas tilted his head to the side, like he always seemed to when he wasn't sure how to react to something Dean had said.

"So anyway, I ... look, Cas is right, I need your help." She proceeded to tell them about the incident in Tucson and the attack in Sedona. When she got to the stuff in Flagstaff she started to pull her knees up to her chest but winced in paid and instead wrapped her arms around herself. She was sure that Martin was dead, and knew it was her fault. Last night proved to her she wasn't capable of killing the creature. She couldn't even handle a human.

"It was recovering quicker than I thought it could, so, I drove to Slackers. I figured I would find a hunter to go with me up to Naatsis'aan to meet with the medicine man. If I can get the items, I can create a weapon but I would need a Hunter to kill it, the only weapon that works is a spear and I don't think I am strong enough to do it. Then you showed up, and that troll tried to skip on the knife, and I ran. Your b... friend over there was walking around outside the parking lot. I know your legends and figured maybe he could get you guys to help me.I was going to flirt with you to get you to help me, then that troll jumped in and I just wanted to get away. When I saw Cas at the edge of the lot, I thought he might be able to get you to help me. I ... I am not very good at asking for help but I realized I needed it and I shouldn't have reacted so poorly when you took out Brutus for me."

"Cas, can you check out her story? Talk to that preacher in Tucson?"

"Of course Dean but you need to keep her safe until I get back."

"We can't stay here for two days." Mirai started to stand up and then dropped back down when Cas disappeared.

"What? What is he?" she gasped.

"Oh, him, he's Castiel, sort of our guardian angel," smirked Dean.

"But, he was in Slacker's, I didn't think anything but humans could get in there," Mirai looked a little nervous now. Dean wondered why she was scared of angels.

"Can I make some coffee? You've been grilling me without caffeine, that's a little unfair don't you think? We could wait for Cas with a fresh cup of coffee." Mirai's answer to any thing that freaked her out was to make coffee, or take a bath and she figured coffee was the better bet here.

"Sure," smiled Sammy, taking in the entire story was a bit much and he could use a cup of coffee.

Mirai stepped out of bed, the borrowed shirt hanging down to her knees. She moved towards the coffee maker, every step sending a jolt of pain into her ribs. She was sure she had broken some ribs. While she was making the coffee, Dean and Sam moved to the far side of the room. Dean still had the gun in hand and watched her closely. She could just barely hear Sam and Dean talking quietly at the other end of the room but not enough to make out any words. She left them their privacy and proceeded to make the coffee. A few minutes later she handed a steaming mug to each of the brothers. Sam took a sip and smiled, "This is really good."

Dean sniffed carefully before taking a sip,"Hmm, it's okay." he mumbled. He didn't want to admit his brother was right.

"Tough sell huh?" smiled Mirai as she sipped down her cup taking a several pain killers with it.

The three sat quietly sipping coffee for a few minutes. Mirai was thankful for the silence as it gave her time to think and process the fact that Cas was an angel and had saved her life at least once before. Her last run in with an angel hadn't gone very well and if something hadn't intervened, she would have been dead long ago.

As she finished up her coffee Cas reappeared. He looked concerned.

"Is Pastor John okay? His kids? Everyone?" Mirai started asking.

"Yes, the Church is surprisingly well protected. They are all fine. The young man who was determined to warn you is out of jail and on his way up here. He is very concerned with your safety. He is, I think the term Pastor John used, smitten."

"Smitten? really? of course John is a true romantic. He would come up with some bull like that. Kid probably wants to steal my car"

"The creature did attack there but the kids hurt it and chased it off."

"Kids? What kind of kids could take out a thing like that?" interrupted Sam.

"They are Hunter's orphans. Pastor John takes them in, teaches them how to be normal and how to protect themselves. He gives them a chance to have a choice. They don't all become hunters but they must all know how to protect themselves. It's part of helping them heal, " Mirai responded throwing out what she considered the pamphlet info that John always said.

Dean looked at Sam and a flash of regret passed across his face so quickly Mirai almost didn't catch it.

"Okay, maybe I believe it's after you. Any idea why?"

"I think I am responsible for the death of it's father," Mirai had been thinking about it for the last skinwalker Martin killed was quite a bit older. It was very possible it had been training a replacement.

"Look, the _yee naaldlooshii_ are Navajo witches. I think this one is likely a clizyati, or pure evil. A witch like that commits a crime of great evil to gain power. Some kill their own children or other family members and use the corpse for their spell materials. The one I helped Martin kill was old, very old, he might have been training a replacement, that replacement would be likely a child or grandchild of his. I think he wants revenge," her breath had caught at Martin's name. She was tired of watching people she knew and cared for die.

"Revenge, you killed one of these?" asked Sam, confused.

"And why do you say he. Do you know who it is?" added Dean.

"I helped kill one of these. I made the spear and Martin thrust it into the creatures heart. I say he because most of them are male. Only childless women can become clizyati. I guess it's tough for a woman to slaughter her own children. I don't know. I don't know who this creature was before it became evil but I can make the weapon to kill it. I don't normally tell anyone this, and you ... all of you need to keep my secret. I tell everyone else I am just a delivery girl but I am a weaponsmith. I trained for years on how to make almost every weapon known to man or god. I know the blessings, and all the rituals to make just about anything to kill any animal. I have made quite the lucrative business out of it."

"Money, are you just about making money?" spat Dean and Sam at the same time.

"No, you shitheads, it's about being safe. Do you know how long most smiths live?," she continued after the two brother's shook their heads, "Most die before they turn 30. I have lived in hiding most of my life, watched my father die with his heart ripped out of his chest, my friends are in danger just by knowing me. I want out but I can't leave. If this thing doesn't get me, something else will. I created the business to hide behind. As long as people think I am just a sales girl, I am safer," Mirai found herself tearing up a bit. She turned her head embarrassed. She didn't want to show weakness but there was something about these young men that made her feel safer, protected. Last night had been the first night since Marcus died that she had no nightmares at all at least without blacking out on whiskey.

"Shithead? maybe Sammy over there is one but I'm not," Dean gave one of his most charming smiles. He was sure now she really did need his help and was thinking she looked pretty darn good in his brother's shirt well at least better than his brother.

"So, are you two willing to help me? We are about 5 hours away from the mountain. We can take my car, get there in about 3 if we are lucky and the roads are clear. The Hatali is waiting for me at the chapter house. He will lead us up the mountain and help perform the rituals to make the spear. It will take a few days to make the spear. The skinwalker will be more circumspect on the reservation. He will know he is in danger and won't want the other medicine men finding him. They won't kill him but they will slow him down."

Dean and Sam shared a glance, and Dean answered her, "Yes. but not in your car."


	9. Chapter 9

Dean wasn't willing to leave the Impala behind but Mirai didn't want to leave hers behind either.

"Come on, every cop in the state is looking for that GTO," argued Dean.

"Maybe, but my equipment, supplies and everything are in it."

"So, we can move them into the Impala. We are safer in one vehicle where I can keep an eye on you."

"Oh, so now I need to be watched over like an infant. I have survived a long time without you. Big old Dean Winchester still trying to rescue everyone," snapped Mirai.

"Hey, you asked us for help, remember," interjected Sam.

"Yeah, and I am wondering why. Look, the state cops are looking for a GTO but the reservation cops won't be. It'll just be another old mud covered beast. They won't be looking for me out there."

"Yes they will, everyone thinks you killed that man. They will hunt you down and us with you. Do you want to be responsible for the number of cops killed when that thing attacks while you are in their custody?"

Dean almost got through to her there. She hated to think people were dying because of her but she also knew the features built into her car would go a long way to protecting her plus there was a lot of gear to move.

"Look, I know you are used to doing things your way but so am I. I would need to move too much gear plus my car has some added safety features. Why don't we take both?"

"What, we follow you and watch you die as the creature attacks while we are too far behind to help? That's about as stupid as I have ever heard."

Dean and Mirai argued back and forth in the little run down hotel room while Sam watched with a bemused look on his face. Eventually they compromised and Dean agreed to let Sam drive the Impala with Cas and he would ride up with Mirai in the GTO. He wasn't thrilled to leave the Impala in Sam's hands but he also didn't want Sam to go with the girl and face the Skinwalker alone either. Mirai slipped into the bathroom to get changed. Dean looked over at his brother and noticed his amused expression.

"What!?"

"Are you finally done with your little domestic spat?" laughed Sam. He was enjoying watching his brother on the loosing side of an argument for a change.

"Bite me!"

Sam laughed and started packing up his gear. Mirai was ready in a few minutes. She tossed Sam his shirt, "Thanks for this, I didn't think to grab a bag or anything when Cas brought me in."

"Sure, anytime," came his half hearted reply. Inside he was thinking it odd she thanked him when she had really just stolen it. He shoved it into the bag and headed out to the parking lot.

Dean felt a little weird watching the Impala pull out as he climbed into the passenger side of the GTO. He barely had time to settle into the seat before Mirai started to peal out.

Something screamed out of her speakers as they headed north toward the Navajo reservation.

"What the hell is the noise?" he yelled out over the echoing screams.

Mirai turned down the stereo, it's Mastodon, Bladecatcher,isn't it perfect?" She smiled and reached to turn it back up.

He grabbed her wrist, "Don't you have any music in this thing?"

"Hey, driver picks the tunes!" she laughed and spun her hand out of his grasp. She left the volume lower though.

"Where's the cassette deck in this thing anyway?"

"Cassettes? Those are old school crap, this baby has a state of the art stereo with an MP3 dock. Don't worry, old man, I put it on shuffle and there will be some other stuff coming up later for an old geezer."

"Geezer, I'm no older than you. Just because I like real music doesn't make me ancient. Also, do we really need to go this fast? I want to get there in one piece"

"Oh, so the Big Bad Dean Winchester is scared of a little speed? Come on, I haven't even topped 120 yet. Why have a car like this if you aren't going to drive fast? Like you always drive that Impala at 35? Don't worry, these roads will be deserted, not a cop in sight and the worst we might have to do is dodge a sheep," Mirai laughed as she flew past Sam in the Impala and fishtailed around a curve.

Dean leaned further back into the seat and forced himself to breathe.

"So, did you really see your father killed?" he asked after a few minutes.

Her foot eased off the gas as she took a few moments to compose herself. "Yes, I was 23. Something came into the house and attacked, well several somethings. I managed to kill one in the living room. The others had chased Marcus.. my foster father... into the workshop. The house was burning... I crawled down the hallway. I knew the workshop was fireproof. When I got in there the last demon, or whatever it was, had Marcus trapped, I tried... I ... I was too late. I threw a spear into it as it pulled Marcus's heart out of his chest. It disappeared as the spear hit it. I still dream about that night, unless I drink enough to bury it. I was ready to die, I had laid down to die and next thing I knew I was in a park in Lawrence, KS of all places. By the time I made it back, most of the house was gone, Marcus was gone, and I knew there was no safety. I have been in hiding and running ever since."

"I know that feeling, so this car is home for you?" Dean kept up with the questions as she seemed to drive a little slower while answering them.

"Most of the year, but I have a home, an actual building where I am as safe as I can be. I retreat there in the winter, make weapons, and so forth which I take out to sell over the summer. I have had a few things try to kill me, many more try to follow me, since everyone assumes a girl can't be the Smith, but so far none have come as close as this thing. It's powerful, more so than any I have encountered before."

"We're meeting an actual medicine man?"

"Yes, a Hatali, they are like priests, doctors and singers all wrapped into one. Martin, damn, I can't believe I got Martin killed after all these years,... anyway he said the Hatali would meet me at the chapter house. It's kind of like their city hall. Or would be if they had a city"

"Cool, I've never met a real medicine man before."

"Well, it's not like the movies so don't expect it to be like that."

"Why did it scare you that Cas was an angel?"

"I wasn't scared. I was just surprised. I mean, really I woke up to learn he wasn't your boyfriend and then he wasn't even human," Mirai tried to deflect the question and turned up the music a little bit. Dean reached over and turned it back down. Although at least it had shifted to something a little less screeching.

"I know fear when I see it. You aren't as lily white as Cas wants me to think. Is that why you are scared of him? "

"Oh, I won't deny I am not perfect but that's not it. I met an angel before. It didn't end well, for either of us. I'd rather not talk about it."

Dean's phone rang before he could press her on it.

"Hey Sam, Yeah I know this thing is a beast. I mean the Impala is still better but this does really fly. Yep, we are still on that road. What do you mean Cas was worried he couldn't find us. He should be able to find the car no matter how fast it goes!"

"About that..."piped up Mirai, "This car is almost as safe as Slacker's. There are anti-angel, anti-demon and all sorts of other things worked into it. He won't be finding us that way. Tell Sam we are going to Navajo Mountain Chapter house, that's all they need to know."

"Yeah, Sam did you hear all that. I don't know how she did it. It's actually a really good idea. Yes, we will meet you there and that car better not have a scratch on it."

"Let's just say it's better if no one can find me. I can create almost any weapon even those that kill angels or lesser demons. That makes me dangerous," Mirai pointed out when Dean hung up.

"Any weapon? Really, anything?"

"Oh, yes. I mean, I sometimes need help from someone for specific rituals or materials but yes, anything. Why, you think a girl can't do things?"

"Well, it's unusual. I mean even big swords? You probably weigh less than some of those."

"I am stronger than you think," she laughed. Dean shut up as he realized the music had shifted from the screaming metal to something he could get behind. She did have some classic rock and the stereo in this car did sound really good. Even as he thought it, he felt guilty about thinking these thoughts about a car other than the Impala. He also found it a little strange to be in the passenger seat with someone other than Sam driving.. He found himself staring out the window at what turned out to be a whole lot of nothing. There was dust, sage brush, broken glass, and the occasional dead animal. Every so often he would see a run down house with a set of corrals outside and some sheep wandering around.

"Why would anyone live out here?"

"It's their home. Where else would they go?"

"Someplace with trees?"

Mirai laughed at that. "This part of the rez is pretty ugly but there are some real nice areas. We are heading to one of the nicest, trees and everything."

"Sure, and unicorns piss rainbows."

"Of course not, that's Nyan cats. I can't believe you didn't know," she laughed.

Dean sat there wondering what kind of monster a nyan was while she turned up the radio. Poison Whiskey by Lynyrd Skynyrd echoed through the car as they sped through the desert. An hour into the drive he had enough. He wasn't used to just sitting and really wasn't comfortable with someone else driving. "Time to pull over. We need to switch drivers and tunes," he yelled at Mirai over more that screeching death metal she seemed to favor. She looked over, and seemed to think for a minute. "Okay, I'm kind of hurting anyway, but this not like your Impala. Midnight needs a gentle touch." Mirai pulled into a gas station. She started the gas pumping and went inside to the restroom while Dean waited. In the dingy little bathroom she swallowed a couple more pain pills chased down with some whiskey from a flask she kept in her bag. She rinsed out her mouth with the brackish water from the faucet and headed back out. The pills would take off the edge and hopefully she would be able to relax a little. When she stepped out, Dean was already settled into the driver's seat. He looked much too comfortable there and it kind of freaked her out to think of him driving. It had been a very long time since anyone but her had driven the GTO. She eased into the passenger seat and took a deep breath as she handed him the keys.

"First things first, you need to change the music. I am not listening to someone slaughter a guitar while I drive."

Mirai glared at him but reached into the glove box and changed the song. AC/DC's Highway to Hell started up and Dean glared back for a moment as he eased the car into gear. He let out the clutch and the car lept forward, rear wheels spinning and throwing up gravel as they pulled onto the two lane highway.

"I told you, she needs a gentle touch. You can't manhandle her like you do that Impala. You keep dropping that clutch and I am switching to Horna. If you think Mastodan was rough, that one will drive holes in your brain."

Dean settled in to the drive fairly easily, enjoying the smooth ride. The music began to shuffle through one classic rock tune to another. He was surprised that she seemed to know what song he would normally want to play next and even more surprised that she repeated some of them. Of course his brother knew he listened to the same five or six albums over and over but how could she have figured that out.

Mirai stared out at the sage brush and red dirt wondering if the car was actually possessed. As soon as Dean was behind the wheel, the music seemed to shuffle according to his tastes. It would have concerned her more if it wasn't such an innocuous sort of thing. Maybe it was just luck of the shuffle. It seemed like a whole lot more than 3 hours before Mirai directed Dean to pull off on a side road leading up to a mountain. It really was a whole lot nicer than he expected. The road narrowed and began to twist and turn up towards the mountain. The arroyos and hills on either side turned from desolate dusty sage brush to tree covered red rocks. They drove a short while until they came to a small set of buildings. Mirai pointed out a spot in front of one and headed inside without waiting for Dean. He rushed to catch up as she walked into the odd shaped building. The six sided building leaned slightly and the dull gray paint was peeling off in large chunks. Once inside the door, it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. He almost grabbed his FBI ID out of habit after seeing the grim looks people were giving him. Mirai put her hand on his arm and shook her head slightly at him.

"Hi, Martin Yellowhorse sent me here. I am supposed to meet a Hatali," she directed her attention to the middle aged woman behind the front desk.

"You that slip of a girl helped him out after the incident?" came a gravelly older voice from the left side of the room.

Dean turned to see an older man leaning on a cane. He wore a Seattle Mariner's baseball cap, a Gun's and Roses t-shirt and jeans. His long hair was salt and pepper and pulled back in an unusual pony tail. It was looped and wrapped with white string or cord. The man's face was leathered from the sun. His eyes were dark and kind beneath the wrinkled lids.

"Yeah, I guess I am. I need your help Grandfather and I have bad news."

"If you mean about Martin I already know he's in the hospital down in Flagstaff. Some kind of rabid dog attack. "

He noticed her look of relief, "You didn't know he survived. My nephew was too strong to die from something like a dog."

"It wasn't a dog. It was the same type of thing that took his mother and I think it's after me now. I need your help to kill this thing."

"If you haven't noticed I am a little old to be hunting down the Yee naaldashi. I sure can't run after it with my cane. Or is that why you have this Bilagaana towering over you?"

"Yes, Grandfather, he is here for that part, I need your help getting the spear. Please can we go share some coffee to discuss this while we wait for some other friends."

"Sure, we'll just head over to the Starbucks," he smiled and moved toward the door.

"Starbucks? Wow, they really do have them everywhere" said Dean. On the short walk over he leaned in to Mirai and asked "Is that really your grandfather?"

"No, out here it's a term of respect, like saying sir only more so."

The old man led them to a little shack next door. Inside were a couple tables and a little deli counter. Mirai went up to the counter ordered three coffees and some pastries and brought everything back to a corner table where the old guy had taken a seat. Dean was a little confused by all of this. Obviously the Starbucks thing was a joke but really this old guy in a ratty hair-band t-shirt was some great medicine man?

"So, Martin told me who you are but he didn't mention a Biligaana." the old man nodded towards Dean.

"Grandfather, I am sorry we really should introduce ourselves properly. I am Lanie Smith, I have no parents but I was raised by woman from the bitter springs clan for several years. This is Dean Winchester, he is as you guessed, Bilagaana. His mother was Mary Campbell, his father John Winchester. He's a sort of a specialist."

"What is this Biligaana he keeps calling me?" Dean leaned over and asked Mirai.

"It basically means whitey," said the old man. "And don't assume I am deaf because I look old. He better be good at what he does for you girl," he leered a little as he said it.

"Oh, he's good all right" she smiled back.

"Great, just great, " muttered Dean.

"Hey at least he assumed you're straight," Mirai laughed and took another sip of the rot gut coffee.

The old man looked at them thoughtfully before he continued, "I know more of your history than you think young lady and your mother was Yaqui, your father bilaganna. Your mother left you in Flagstaff to protect you and hide you and you may use Lanie, but your real name is Mirai, you were her little miracle."

"How did you ... Did you know my mother? Is she still alive?"

"No, she died shortly after leaving you in that fire station. She died to keep you safe and away from this life"

"I... never knew. I didn't chose this life, it found me."

"Hey, back off on her plus why haven't you given us your name," Dean jumped in.

"Ah, I didn't mean to hurt her. I wanted her to know who she really was, where she came from and understand that her mother wanted to save her not just abandon her. As for me, I am called Sani Tallfeather. I was born to the Mud clan and born for the Yaqui tribe. You called me grandfather out of respect but we are clan-related on your mother's side as well. I know Martin said you had the money for me but I will do this for free for you on one condition, you make 10 of these for me now and more when I need them. I will hand them out to the young men and we will kill them all. No more of my family, or my people are going to be attacked by these things. It is time we finished off these creatures for once and for all," He slapped the table hard enough to knock over Dean's coffee cup. Mirai grabbed some napkins and started sopping up the mess. It was cleaned up just before Sam and Castiel walked in the door.

"Hey Dean, glad we found you at the local Starbucks. Do you think you could have driven any faster?" Sam slapped his brother on the shoulder.

"Hey, it was the car. Don't blame me," Dean raised his hands.

Mirai got some more coffees and pastries for the other two.

"Grandfather, this is Sam Winchester. He is Dean's brother. This other gentleman is Castiel, Castiel..." she looked at Cas to get the rest of the information.

"I know him granddaughter, I know his lineage as well," Sani said after it was obvious Cas was not going to respond. He had pondered waiting to see what they would come up with but decided it would be better to save them that headache. He knew the white man's god had disappeared and left these angels running around like wild goats. He hadn't expected to see one out here though.

"Now we are all here, Mirai, I am glad you planned ahead and got several helpers. We have a lot of work to do and at least one of them looks big enough to help haul a tree or two. Finish up your coffee. We can stay at my grandson's house by the mountain tonight and get a fresh start in the morning."

Sam gulped down his danish and ate Castiel's too. They didn't stop the entire way trying to catch up with his brother and he was hungry, thirsty and angry.

They all headed out to the parking lot a strange procession that was watched closely by everyone around the area. It would soon be the center of talk in the small community as people tried to figure out what the Hatali was doing with all those big Biligannas. As they walked around the building back to where their cars were parked, a beat up dusty Ford Ranchero pulled up next to them. Mirai and Dean both let out small groans as Garth stepped out of the beater.

"Fancy running into you all here," he smiled as he stepped out of the car.

"Hi Garth," came several quiet voices. Only the Hatali remained silent, sizing up this new man.

"Are you guys here about the yeti? I don't know that we need this many of us."

"No, Garth, this is something different, kind of personal," piped up Mirai. Dean looked over surprised. This girl seemed to know everyone. Why hadn't they heard of or met her before?

"You okay Lanie? I can wait on this yeti and help you guys out instead."

"No," came from Sam, Dean and Mirai while the Hatali smiled out a resounding "Yes".

The others looked to the older gentleman in shock.

"Grandfather, I hate to be disrespectful, but you don't even know him. Are you sure you want him helping with this?"

"Oh, yes, I am sure. We need to cut down two cactus and strip them. It will be a perfect job for this man. He has a peace to him that will be good for the ceremony. Come along all of you, I will get you set up at my grandson's and then show this young man where he is needed."

Mirai smiled and gave in. Of course, she realized, it was considered taboo to cut down a cactus so they would need someone outside of the normal ceremony and the hunt to do the actual work. This would save the old man from having to ask one of his family to do it.

"I will help however you need," smiled Garth.

They walked the rest of the way over to their vehicles while Garth turned his around. Sani spotted the two muscle cars. "We can't take those where we are going. Why wouldn't any of you drive a something useful? We can get them to my grandson's but then we will have to take my truck from there."

They made quite the parade driving through the peaceful community one after another. Mirai was following the rather complicated directions of the old man twisting through several dirt roads and across various places, Dean was back behind the wheel of his baby following the GTO, and Garth made up the tail of the procession. Kids would run up to their fences to watch the cars go by. They knew something was up. After about 15 minutes they pulled up in front of an older mobile home. It was covered in dust, at least one window was boarded up and there were tires on the roof. The yard was filled with chickens, sheep and a couple of horses. Dean felt like they were in some other country at this point. The door opened as Sani stepped out of the GTO and a young man in jeans came down to greet them. He shooed the chickens away as he walked smiling to greet the older man.

"Grandfather, I thought you said it would only be a young lady," came his quiet voice.

"Ah, yes, I thought it would be but she brought along a few helpers. This tall one back here is going to help with the cactus," smiled Sani as he looked over at Garth.

"I will take him over there if you want to get these guys settled, they might have to sleep on the floor, or share beds or something. You know I don't have a lot of room here."

"This is my Grandson, Eugene Yazzie, He is kind enough to let us use his house tonight. As he mentioned, I did not realize we would need beds for so many but I am sure we have enough blankets to go around and can work out something. Eugene, this is Lanie, Dean, Sam, Castiel and ..."

"Garth," filled in Dean.

"Ah yes, Garth, the peaceful man, Please do take him over to the cactus and let him know what to do. We need at least a pickle jar full of the paste."

"Yes Grandfather, just don't eat all the stew before we get back," smiled Eugene as he started walking towards Garth's car.

Sani led the others into the small home while Eugene and Garth pulled out of the driveway.

The inside of the home was cozy with colored wool blankets scattered across old comfortable furniture. The entire house smelled of some kind of meat cooking and there was a middle aged woman frying something on the stove. Dean looked closer surprised to see it looked like a thick tortilla or some kind of round flat bread. The house felt very crowded once they all settled in, some around the small round kitchen table others on various chairs scattered around the living room. A TV in the corner was showing the weather report but it was in some foreign language so all Dean could tell is it looked like sunshine mixed with rain. Sani shut if off and motioned for them to relax.

"The woman over at the stove is my niece, Marlene. She offered to come cook for us but of course I thought it would only be two extra mouths, I am sure she will find a way to feed us but I should go apologize. Please, for now just rest a moment," he smiled at them and then worked his way to the kitchen. He began speaking to the woman in Navajo but even without the words, you could tell she was angry at first, then darting looks at the strangers she slowly softened and eventually everything seemed to be okay. A few minutes later she was even smiling at them as she brought the food to the table.

"It's mutton stew and fry bread, I don't have much of anything else for you but maybe Eugene will think ahead and pick up some cobbler on the way home," she said as she began handing out small bowls.

Dean and Sam were surprised to find the stew was actually much more like soup with a very thin almost clear broth and filled with chunks of meat, carrots and potatoes. It was pretty good even if the mutton was kind of odd tasting but then neither of them had really eaten sheep before. Mirai dug in with relish. She had really missed this. She finished up her bowl quickly then drenched her fry bread in honey to create her own dessert. The boys followed suit. Cas meanwhile nibbled a bit at the bread with some honey but had refused the stew. He didn't really need to eat and he knew they didn't have so much they could afford to share needlessly. Sani gave him a soft look of thanks as if he knew what the angel was thinking.

"Do you have any beers in that fridge, a cold brew would go perfect with this," asked Dean.

The old man and woman shared a look and then Mirai piped up,"There is no alcohol on the Navajo reservation. It's against the law here."

"None, no beer, no wine, no whiskey? How do you do it?" Dean was shocked. He had heard of dry counties before but had never experienced a place that had no alcohol at all.

"Well, smugglers bring some in once in a while but its a federal crime and more trouble than it's worth. I am sure you can survive a night or two without that poison," muttered Marlene as she moved back to the kitchen. Dean was thinking of the bottles in the trunk of the Impala and wondering what kind of trouble it would bring if he sneaked one of those in.

Garth was excited and surprised to be included in whatever was going on. Eugene drove him out to a large empty field. In the center were two very large cacti.

"So, Garth, I guess they didn't tell you much about this or you wouldn't have volunteered," smiled the Navajo as they walked up to the cacti.

"Nope, but Lanie is real important to me, a good friend, and I would help her with anything," answered Garth seriously.

"Well, this isn't really that complicated, all you have to do is take these two prickly pear cactus apart leaf by leaf. You will need to blanch the leaves to remove the stickers, clean off the skin and then crush the insides into a thick paste in this jar. You have to do this with a knife made the old way, out of chert," he handed Garth what looked like a piece of rock with one sharp edge and then moved a few steps a way to start a fire. Once the fire was going strong he put an old blackened pot over it so Garth could blanch the leaves in it.

Garth looked at the rock, then at the cactus, and realized what he had gotten himself into. He was going to suffer for this one. He started to walk up to the first cactus when Eugene reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Take my gloves, you will need them," Eugene had taken pity on the man. He had to admire someone who loved his friends enough to be willing to stick his hand into a cactus for them.

As Garth began to cut leafs off one by one, Eugene began to tell him a story.

"This mountain, it's a special mountain you see. Not one of the Sacred mountains but still very important. It is the Head of the Earth Woman. When the people first came to this area they found hope here. Of course the Earth Mother protected them and granted them safety on her lower slopes. One day a small boy decided to break tradition and climb the mountain to the top. See, we don't go to the tops of our Sacred mountains, that is not a place for humans but this boy he didn't want to listen to the old people. Instead he slipped out one morning and began to climb up to the top, well above the spring, well above the sacred cave, all the way up to the snow line. He was soon very tired but not scared in the least. He was sure his grandparents just told silly stories to scare him so he kept climbing up past the clouds to the top of the mountain. He stood up there and smiled out at the rest of the world. He felt that he could see everything from here and thrilled he had ignored the traditions. But, of course there are reasons we don't mess with certain things and a voice came rumbling from the back of the mountain. It shook the ground and made him a little nervous even as he enjoyed the view. "Go back little one, the clouds are not for you."

"Hah, you just don't want to share but I am smart and brave and I think the clouds can be for me too," he yelled back. He wasn't a very bright young man after all. Now, our gods, I guess you would call them, aren't like the white man's god, they are kind in their own way but the boy had broken the rules. Instead of killing the boy, the mountain decided to give him the clouds and changed him into a blue bird. The boy flew away from the mountain and was never seen by his family again."

Garth had found a rhythm to his cutting while listening to the story and had a large stack of cactus leaves before he knew it. It was starting to get dark and he was cutting by the light of the fire. Even with the gloves, he ended up with cactus needles in his hands and arms. He was beginning to wonder about the wisdom of doing this but he also wanted to help Lanie. He had always liked her and knew she must really be in trouble if she was getting the Winchesters to help her.

Blanching the leaves went better than cutting and once the needles were gone, the rest of the process was very simple. He did end up covered in sticky cactus goo which seemed to make the stickers in his arms hurt worse. He would be very glad to be done. Eugene shared various stories with him during the night but for some reason the image of the little blue bird flying away from the mountain really stuck with him. It seemed a little odd that the boy would be punished just for climbing a mountain but then again, maybe being a bird wouldn't be so bad. Once he had filled the large pickle jar with paste Eugene put out the fire and led him back to the truck. He was tired, hungry and hurting from the tens of stickers in his arms.

"Why do you need this anyway," he asked Eugene as they drove back to the house.

"The Hatali will use it to coat the spears they are making. It's powerful magic to use cactus around here. In fact only the most well trained medicine men will use it."

"Spear, what does Lanie need a spear for?"

"She's got a Navajo witch after her. They are tough to kill so she needs something powerful to protect her."

"I will face it down, just get me the spear," Garth was thinking this would be his chance to impress her.

"I'm sorry but now that you have gathered the cactus you can't be involved in anything else for the ceremony. In fact, you will have to leave the area in the morning. It's taboo to cut cactus, and you can't risk ruining the ceremony by being anywhere near it."

Garth rode the rest of the way quiet. He had wondered why the old man had jumped at including him. Of course the Winchesters were important and he wasn't so now they could shove him away again. He wondered if he would ever be treated as an equal by them. He was a hunter too!

Eugene glanced at the quiet man in the passenger seat. He wasn't very good at reading emotions in white men but he thought the young man might be a little too quiet.

"If it helps you feel better, I don't think Lanie knew what it meant for you to do this. It is also a really important part of the ceremony. If you hadn't done it, I would have had to. I would have had to leave my home, my family, everything until I could be purified," he tried to soothe the other man.

"Yeah, well, it always seems to work this way. I don't know that Lanie even really sees me. Maybe I should give it up and go back to hunting the yeti instead."

"Yeti, here? We don't get those here. You need to go up to the Cree or Blackfoot reservations for those man," laughed Eugene.

"Really, I figured any big mountain would do. Blackfoot huh?"

The rest of the drive back they chatted about where yetis were likely to be found, and whether a yeti was different from a sasquatch or not. By the time they got back to the house they had started a strong friendship and Garth was over his upset about having to leave the next morning. Lanie was always more of a friend than anything else anyway.

When they pulled up to the house the whole crew was outside staring up at the starlit sky as the old man pointed out various constellations. Eugene led Garth into the house to get cleaned up and eat. He was amazed to find there was still stew and frybread for them. Marlene sat down with Garth and removed the cactus stickers from his arms. She rubbed a salve into his arms and the pain and tingle went away almost instantly. He enjoyed the fry bread and the quiet company of the two Navajos. Shortly after eating, they joined the others outside to stare at the stars.

_Authors Note: The story included here is not a traditional Navajo story although some items are true to Navajo culture as I understand it. They do consider several mountains in the southwest to be Sacred and have many taboos although the method used above is nothing that I know of being used in any of their traditional ceremonies. If you ever get a chance to visit the Navajo Nation, I highly recommend doing so with an open mind and willingness to leave behind your preconceptions about Native Americans. They are an amazing group of people and it is well worth a trip just for the fry bread. Just leave the alcohol behind. That is really against the law in most areas of the reservation. _


	10. Chapter 10

The air quickly turned cool and Mirai found herself almost chilled lying on the hood of the car. She knew she should go in but it was hard to pull away from the beauty, of the stars, the stories, and the feeling of not being alone. It had been so many years since she had felt this comfortable around a group of people. The Hatali must have gotten cold as well. He finished up his story about the star people and motioned them all back into the house. Marlene pulled Mirai into the back bedroom.

"Here, you and I can sleep here. I won't hold with unmarried people carrying on in this house," she huffed.

"Oh, well, I am not with any of them in that way but it's okay, I would rather not have to sleep on the sofa or floor anyway," answered Mirai. The small room was filled with books. They were stacked on the dresser, between the two beds and filled the closet. most of them were science fiction or westerns. The room was quiet and warm and Mirai found herself asleep shortly after laying down.

The rest of the crew ended up in blankets and sleeping bags on the floor. Garth got t he dubious honor of sleeping on the couch while Sani settled into the master bedroom. Soon the house had settled into a quiet lull.

Dean had curled up next to the door figuring he would be the best able to stop anything that might come through. He woke to the most god awful sound he had ever heard. He jumped up and yanked the door open knife in one hand gun in the other only to come face to face with three roosters crowing on the front porch. The chuckling coming from the back room told him that at least one person had seen his reaction. He closed the door and turned to face Sani, chuckling near the kitchen. He set down his weapons, pulled on his pants and holstered the pistol. The knife he slid back into its sheath and strapped it on as well. No one else appeared to be awake so at least it was only the old man who witnessed his jumpiness.

"They are mean little creatures but effective alarm clocks," smiled the old man as he began to put coffee on to boil. It had been years since Dean had seen anyone use a percolator to make coffee. He joined the old man at the kitchen table and they sat in companionable silence while the coffee brewed. One by one they were joined by the others. Marlene came out, grabbed a cup of coffee and informed Eugene it was his job to feed everyone breakfast. He grumbled a bit and then headed to the fridge to put together a simple breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. Everyone seemed pretty quiet and mellow until they finished up breakfast. The food energized them for the day. Mirai ate nervously and little, she was dreading what would come and was worried the creature might even attack here. She could also see that Garth was still a little sad that he would have to leave after breakfast. She offered to walk him to his car.

"Lanie, I would stay and help if they would let me," smiled Garth on their way out into the morning.

"I know that Garth, you've always been a good friend in addition to being a good customer. You can still help, that monster could be following us and might attack either at Slackers or somewhere in between. It can't be killed with normal weapons but it can be hurt. Keep your eyes open out there and be safe," she smiled up at him. He brightened visibly at the thought that he still might be useful and drove away with a smile on his face.

"Well done," came Eugene's voice behind Mirai as she watched Garth drive away. "He was pretty upset to be sent away last night. He really cares about you."

"I know, but Garth needs someone who can give more back to him than I can. He will find the right woman some day and it'll change his life," Mirai responded as she headed back towards the house. Eugene headed over to the sheds to feed the animals shaking his head slightly.

Mirai stepped inside to find the men packing up their stuff and getting ready to head out.

"Young lady, you need to pack up whatever you need and get ready to go. We have a long day ahead of us," smiled Sani to soften the harsh words.

Silently she headed to the back room to grab her stuff. It only took her a few moments as most of what she needed was out in the car. Once she was ready, they all followed Sani out to the backyard. He led them to a king cab dodge that looked like it had been wrecked a few times. It was covered in dried mud and dust. The doors creaked open and the springs groaned as the five of them climbed in. The engine sounded fairly good as it fired up though so Dean relaxed a little as he eased it into gear. He was surprised the old man had simply handed him the keys but also thankful. He felt better when he was driving. He stopped next to the GTO and Lanie began to move some of her gear into the back of the truck. He was shocked at the amount of stuff she had managed to put into that car as she pulled out several hammers, some rasps, jars and boxes with various powders and liquids in them. Once she had everything set to go they headed off. The radio was blaring Johnny Cash as they drove through the small community that looked like it stepped out of a third-world country. A few minutes later they were bouncing up a dusty dirt road towards the mountain northwest of town. Mirai turned down the radio so she could explain what they were about to do.

They would need to go through a purification ceremony first. After that they would hike further up the mountain and cut 11 lengths of wood, well at least two of them would cut the spears and form them. Mirai would go with the Hatali to gather the plants and other items they would need, including water from a spring nearer the top of the mountain. She would then finish the spears including cast iron tips. One final ceremony would finish blessing the spears and then one of the boys would get to kill the monster. Three days and they should be done. Hopefully they could keep away from the creature that long.

At the top of the road, Sam and Cas were put to work starting a fire in a sweat hut. Once the fire was going strong, Sani started to undress, "The rest of you need to strip as well. We will stop at undergarments. Normally we would not include a woman in this but Mirai is a special case. Since we will be mixed, I would prefer not to have all of us completely naked."

Dean smiled at Mirai as he stripped his clothes off. Castiel seemed hesitant.

"What's a matter Cas?"

"Humans are usually hesitant to strip down like this. Are you sure I should?"

"Yes Cas,this is a special situation, they have different rules here."

Once they were down to just underwear, Sam avoided looking directly at any of the others, especially Mirai. Dean on the other hand was more than willing to enjoy the view of Mirai in her bra and underwear. Sam leaned over to him and whispered "really Dean, 10 hours ago you wanted to shoot her." "Come on Sam, It's been awhile." "yeah San Francisco and the roomate?" Sani motioned them into the sweat lodge as the others had already entered. The room was very small, and very hot. The sweat began pouring off them as soon as he pulled the cover over the entrance. the room was dimly lit by the embers of the fire.

"There is spring water to drink, you will want to drink often to help purify your body. If it gets to be too much, let me know, we can step out. I will sing, you will dream. Sam, you must add cedar to fire anytime it dies down. Dean you will switch off with him. Lanie, you need to sit next to me. You will need to give me water regularly and check my pulse. If I start to pass out, you can give me sugar water. We have 18 hours before dawn. My nephews are on the way to keep watch over us. This is sacred to our people it should keep the Yee Naldissshii out but just in case they will chase it away.

The first hour seemed to last forever. The smell of the cedar was overpowering and the heat was making Dean sleepy. He drank the water Cas handed him wishing he had a cold beer instead. Three hours in, he took his turn adding cedar to the fire. The old man was singing in some odd language that made no sense to Dean but seemed just on the edge of logic. Five hours in, he felt a sense of quiet and peace it seemed like no one else was in the hut. The singing was distant. He stared out the window gazing at the stars for 10 minutes before he realized there was no window in this hut and the stars shouldn't be out yet anyway. Time seemed to have moved away from him. The stars reformed and coalesced into eyes and then into nothing. He could hear voices just out of his range of hearing. They were soft and low, they almost sounded like his parents used to when they would argue at night. Keeping it low so it wouldn't wake the baby or bother him. He could just make out a few words here and there, enough to know they were angry, tired and arguing over him. "You are too harsh on him, he's a boy..."Yes but he will need to be a man one day. " Shhh you will wake the baby." "Dean... dean, I know you are awake, go back to bed. It's okay, it will all be okay. We love you and i know you will always be there to take care of you baby brother. " Dean could almost feel his mother's arms around him and then he was back in the tent with Cas handing him the mug of water again.

Sam yanked his dripping wet hair out of his again, put another branch of cedar on the fire and settled back into his spot next to the fire. He leaned back against the wall and took another long drink. The smoke filled the hut and made him cough slightly. He put the bottle to his lips again and almost choked when he saw Jessica across the fire. "Jess?...Oh God, Jess."

"It's okay honey. I know you tried to protect me. I wanted you to know I still love you and I believe in you. You will be stronger for this but you need to let me go." She was crying but smiling at him as well. He started to move towards her when strong hands pulled him back . He was still kicking and fighting as Cas, dragged him back away from the fire. He blinked the sweat out of his eyes and Jess was gone. Cas relaxed his grip as soon as Sam came back to himself and settled back against the wall, watching and wondering why he was here. This would mean nothing to him but the old man had insisted.

Mirai kept a close eye on the Hatali, handing him water and checking his breathing and pulse. The heat didn't seem to bother her. The sweat dripped down off her hair and ran down her body but she seemed to ignore it. Every so often she would stare at the fire. Shrinking back whenever more wood was added and it flared higher. Mirai tried to ignore the heat, the smoke, the smell. Last time she did this she had seen things she didn't want to remember. This time she was determined it wouldn't happen fire was harder to ignore. Every time one of the boys threw branches on it, the flare up would draw her eyes, spook her a little.

Dean took his turn and threw a few more branches on the fire, wondering how much longer he would have to suffer this heat and the smoke. Some of the branches were twined with Sage and he found himself thinking of the last Thanksgiving he had shared with his mother. He could barely remember it but something about the sage reminded him of the stuffing and the turkey. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them he found himself back home. There was the table they used to eat at. On top of it was pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cherry pie, even blueberry. He moved closer to the table and that's when he saw her, his mother sitting at one of the chairs smiling at him. Just behind her, with one hand resting on her shoulder was his Dad. Everything was right and perfect and he immediately distrusted it. "Dean, honey, it's not time yet. You have things to do, let this go," came him mother's beautiful voice. He reached out to touch her and she along with everything else dissolved into smoke. Instead there was the old man, staring at him.

"You are facing a very dark path. You will either learn to control your rage or it will devour you. You must prepare young man, you must be strong, and you must also remember that no-one is beyond redemption if they truly seek it. Your love is your downfall and your only hope. Be strong."

He awoke moments later as Sam laid him down outside the tent. There were several Navajo men waiting that brought him water while others ushered Sam back inside. It was dark out in the way it gets just before dawn.

Sam settled back into the heat, refreshed by his brief trip out into the cool morning air. He couldn't believe how long they had been in there already. He put another branch on, rested against the pile of branches and was soon drifting away again.

"okay, you big oaf, get up, get moving," came Ellen's voice. He jerked awake, there was no way it could be Ellen but there she was standing right in front of the fire.

"Listen to me young man, your brother is facing something huge and you need to be ready to help him. You need to be able to love him. You need to remember..." her voice trailed off and he realized he was being carried out of the tent by Cas. Cas handed him off to the nephews who laid him down next to his brother and then entered the tent again. The heat didn't bother Cas, and his body would only sweat if he chose to allow it. He still wasn't sure why he was here but the old man insisted he remain.

Now that the two brothers were both gone, Mirai hoped the fire would just die down. Instead,she saw Cas reach a branch onto it. He didn't seem to be affected by the heat at all. He did however lay the wood in such a way that it didn't flare up and instead began to smolder slowly. She stared across the fire at the blue eyed angel, wondering what he was really doing with the Winchesters. She never really trusted angels and had always thought they were hiding something. Cas had his head cocked to one side, watching the Hatali as he patiently placed branches on the fire. His expression was blank. the glow of the embers lit his face softly and cast his shadow against the north wall of the hut. She could see his profile and the faintest impression of wings, they were huge and seemed to unfurl back behind him. She could just see them outlined against the desert sky. The sun was beginning to rise and the soft pink glow on the horizon colored the silver grey of his wings to a soft blush of color. The wings seemed to move slightly in a breeze she couldn't feel and then just as suddenly they were gone, curled in on themselves and Cas was just a man sitting across the fire from her. She shook her head,realizing that she couldn't have seen those, and that inside the hut there was no way to see the sunrise like that. She looked into the fire a moment instead and felt the rest of room fall away again. She expected to see her father die again and cringed waiting. Instead, she saw a woman, dark haired, heavy set, wearing an old camouflage jacket over a dirty t-shirt and jeans. She was carrying something wrapped in an old blanket. Mirai leaned closer wondering what was in the blanket, the woman held it so carefully, and was humming. Mirai stepped forward a step and recognized the song as the woman began to softly sing, It took her a moment to realize it a song called Girl in the War, it was on the Josh Ritter album she had picked up at pastor John's suggestion. The woman stopped singing right after the part of how if the angels couldn't help the girl they could go to hell.

Mirai realized it was a baby in that blanket. The woman set the baby down outside the door to a fire station. She leaned over the baby, "There's my little miracle girl, Mirai. You will be safer this way. You can have a normal life." Mirai realized the baby was her. The woman kissed the baby on the top of her head and walked away. On her way out, she walked right up to Mirai, she raised her hand up to Mirai's face. "Oh, Mija, you turned out right beautiful my little one. My little Mirai you are perfect. I wanted to save you from this life but I guess it was in your blood and there was no saving you from it. You are doing good my little miracle. I loved you, I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, but I was right you were safer without me."

Mirai felt the ghost of a touch from her mother as she faded into the smoke. Castiel began to carry her out of the door just as the sun crested the mountain. He realized this is why the old man wanted him to stay.

Sani's voice was rough from singing all night as he stepped out of the lodge. "Okay, all of you into the pond. You need to finish cleaning up."

Dean let out a yowl as he hit the ice cold water. Sam did the same a short bit later. Cas walked into the pond with Mirai still in his arms. He used a touch of his grace to warm the water slightly for her.

She looked up at him, "I saw your wings, they are so beautiful," she smiled up at him.

He looked a little discomfited by the statement but held on to her until she found her footing in the little pond. Once they were rinsed off and determined to be clean by the Hatali, they stepped out into the cool mountain air to dry off and get dressed. Mirai seemed completely at ease being nearly nude in front of them but she also seemed to be a little out of it still. Sam however dressed very quickly, uncomfortable in front of all the others around them. The ld man had 10 nephews and they all laughed and made some kind of comment about biliganas. He towered over all of them, feeling like Gulliver in the land of Lilliput. Dean was quieter than normal. Whatever he had seen in the sweat lodge obviously bothered him.

"Now we are purified and ready to work" smiled Sani. "If you chose, you can talk about your dreams but you do not have to share them. They were gifts, treasure them and learn from them. Now we need to hike up to the spring head and cut some tree branches. My nephews will set up around the base of the mountain to slow the creature. It is tracking you girl and it will find you."

The group gathered up the last of their items and started to hike up the mountain.

"What about breakfast?" grumbled Dean as he followed his brother up a trail. "Don't we get to eat?"

"We will eat after the branches are cut and the spears are hewn."

"Great, up all night, freezing cold dip in a pond, and now no breakfast."

"The Big Bad Dean Winchester is really whiny. Hmmm" laughed Mirai. Picking at Dean was easier then facing what had been revealed the night before.

"Hey, what was it you were telling Cas this morning. Did you really see his wings?"

"Yes, I think, in the smoke and the heat, I saw him with wings. Come on, between the heat and the peyote, I am sure we all saw a lot of things."

"Peyote? He drugged us?"

"Sure, of course he did. Slipped it into that water you were drinking. Why? Don't you enjoy tripping?"

"Shush girl, there was no peyote involved, quit picking on the biliganna!" snapped Sani.

The rest of the hike was finished in silence other than Dean's feet stomping on the ground. Mirai was surprised, she had expected Sam to make more noise but he seemed more at ease in the woods than his brother.

The head of the spring was a small trickle of water that eventually fed the pool they had bathed in. Dean's stomach was growling and his temper was growing by the minute as the old man led them from tree to tree pointing out which branches to cut. Sam and Dean were put to work with axes cutting the branches and then forming them into basic spear shapes. While they were wandering tree to tree, Mirai and Sani went out foraging for the rest of the plants and herbs they would need. By mid afternoon, Sam and Dean had cut over half the spears and Mirai was working on the iron tips with Castiel helping to stoke up a small forge. This place had obviously been used for this before. Sani was busy grinding the herbs and other items in a small mortar. He would sing in that odd language periodically. Once the heads were forged and quenched in the spring water Mirai would slowly heat them, hammer them on an anvil then heat again. As she finished a spear head she would bring it over to Sani and quench it in the mixture then go back and start another. Dean found himself watching her every chance he had. He had never seen anyone create things like this,especially not a girl.

After he and Sam had roughed out the wooden portion of the spears, Mirai took hold of them and finished them up. In her hands, the roughed out wood and metal spear heads became beautiful finished weapons. She stacked them one by one next to the spring while Sani gave the others some sandwiches and coffee. Once Mirai finished up the final spear she collapsed next to the spring. Dean and Sam rushed to her side, but the old man stopped them. He covered her with a colorful wool blanket and sat by her side while she slept. "She needs to rest but she will be fine. Tomorrow we will finish the blessings. I need you to take turns watching the camp. The creature will attack tonight. I will create a protective circle but it will only be large enough for the girl. I will be exposed while I maintain the circle. You must protect her at all costs. She can finish the blessing if something happens to me, " he proceeded to pour a mixture of salt and iron filings around Mirai. He added several other items the boys did not recognize then sat down and began chanting.

Dean sent Sam to bed and stayed up to take watch. Castiel would walk the perimeter as he required no sleep.

The night sky was stunning in its clarity. It looked as though you could reach up and pick a star out of the sky. Dean was about to wake Sammy when he heard Castiel cry out. It gave him moments to prepare just before the creature burst into the clearing. He had knife and gun at the ready even as he yelled for Sam to wake up. The creature leaped over the fire at him and he had just enough time to get one shot off into it's chest as it knocked him over. Sam leaped between it and the Hatali smashing his blade into it's neck and knocking it sideways. Castiel was suddenly there, slamming it further away from the sleeping girl and her medicine man. Dean unloaded the rest of his clip into the creatures body. Sam was ready to hit it again with the knife when it disappeared.

"Damn, I hit it with 14 bullets, you both stabbed it, and it was still ready to go. I really hope that spear works on it. I don't think I want to deal with it again." cursed Dean as he nursed the ribs he was sure were cracked.

Sam took over watch, just in case and let Dean take a rest. Dean slept lightly, the sound of the old man chanting, brought back memories of the dream he had in the sweat lodge. The rest of the night passed quietly. Sam put together a breakfast for all of them. Mirai woke starved and craving caffeine. "Hey, is that bacon I smell and coffee. I think I am in love," she smiled as she took the plate and mug Sam offered her.

"Wow, you're easy," laughed Sam. "Oh, not in love with you, in love with the bacon," she spoke around a big bite of the heavenly bacon. "What's with Sani?" she asked nodding over at the now sleeping man.

"He stayed up all night casting some kind of protective spell over you. You were out cold, you didn't even stir when that thing attacked last night," answered Sam.

"Damn, is everyone okay? Where's Cas?"

"Well, Dean's a little banged up, Cas is checking on the guys that were supposed to be watching at the base of the mountain but overall, I think we are all okay. Can those spears really kill one of these?" he pointed at the stack of spears.

"Yes, it's the only thing that can. Or at least they will when they are done. Here, I have some pain killers in my bag for Dean, it sounds like he is in pain over there."

Mirai handed Sam the bottle after taking some herself. Her ribs were still painful with every move although the pain killers did a good job of masking the pain. Dean was moaning lightly in his sleep. He woke with a start and sat up too quickly for his banged up ribs. He started to let out a yelp when he noticed his kid brother watching him with concern. Old instincts kicked in and he choked off the yelp as he layed back down for a moment.

"Hey, is that bacon I smell. Please tell me you didn't let Sam cook, he always burns the bacon," he teased his brother to cover up his own pain. Mirai sat down next to him with a mug of steaming coffee in one hand while Sam placed the bottle of painkillers in the other.

"Here, you big goof, take these, I understand you and your brother protected us from that thing last night."

She finished up her breakfast and walked over to the spears.

"I need to finish these, the creature is very strong and getting stronger," She gathered them up and headed to the hillside above the spring. There was a small cave that she entered. They could hear further chanting and the sounds of dancing from the cave entrance but could not enter the cave itself. Sani woke up a few hours later just as Mirai came stumbling out of the cave. She was exhausted but exhilarated as she handed the stack of spears to the Hatali. He smiled broadly and handed one of them to Dean and wrapped the others together in an old blanket. He nodded to Sam, "Carry her to my truck. We are done here."

Mirai tried to protest but her exhausted legs gave way just as Sam reached out to catch her up. He carried her down the trail to the beat up old truck.

Mirai struggled at first then settled back into his arms. It was strange to be dependent on two men who were basically strangers. It was even stranger that she felt so comfortable with them. They were rounding the last corner of the trail on the way to the truck when a young man ran up. "Hey what did you do to her, put her down or I'll shoot," he shouted pointing a revolver at Sam.

"Hey, Nova, it's okay, these are my friends, put the stupid gun down," returned Mirai recognizing the young man from outside the church in Tucson.

Dean kept his own gun trained on the young man until he had put the pistol away.

"I came to help you. The yee naldeshii is still after you. I told you to go someplace safe. Why didn't you?" the young man was very upset.

"Who are you?" Dean and Mirai asked in stereo.

"Grandson!" smiled the Hatali who ran up and hugged the young man. "You are alive, I thought for sure it had killed you since you weren't with her or did you not find her at all?"

"Grandfather, I found her but she had me arrested in Tucson. I tried to warn her like you asked but she ignored me. She is as stubborn as you said she would be. I can still sense the creature. It is coming to attack soon. It's very angry."

"Grandson?" asked Dean and Mirai in stereo again. She found herself grinning up at Sam as he finally set her down on the tailgate of the old truck. "Thanks big guy" she said before turning to the Hatali. "You had him track me down? How did he find me? How did he track me? Was this all your plan to begin with? Who are you, really?" She might be paranoid but something was off on this.

"I told you who I am. He is my grandson Natal and yes I sent him after you. He had a vision two months ago about you and that creature. I knew you were in danger and couldn't allow that. You are the daughter of my clan-sister. That is a strong bond, an important family tie. He followed you through his visions. He is a very powerful seer. My only plan was to do what I could to protect you and help you."

"You didn't do enough old man," came a low pitched voice from the other side of the all turned to see a young Navajo man wearing what looked like a mountain lion skin that was still dripping blood. "I have found my final spirit animal and now she and all the rest of you are dead," he half-growled as he pulled the lion head over his own. In a split second the change was complete and the creature, now a mountain lion instead of a timber wolf leaped into the bed of the truck. Natal grabbed Mirai and pulled her off the truck as the lions claws scraped her back. She rolled half under the truck, cursing in pain. Natal took the brunt of the attack with the creatures weight driving him to the ground, long claws ripping into his gut and face as it spun to get under the truck. Sam had pulled his gun and was shooting it, emptying the clip into it's side had no effect. Dean leaped toward the creature spear at the ready as it scrambled under the truck after Mirai, he could hear her curses as she rolled further under the truck. The creature's size was working against it as it strained to get under the rear axle. Dean drove the spear into it's spine. It let out an inhuman scream as Dean drove the spear through the spine into the ground below. Sam meanwhile was pulling Mirai out from the front of the truck and shoving her behind him waiting for the the thing to break free. Instead, it shifted back to human form, pinned to the ground under Dean it let out a sob reaching his hands out to Mirai, "You killed my father, you whore, you need to die'" he choked out the last few words and died.

"That's all it took, a stupid spear and it's dead? But it didn't flame out, why is the body still here?" muttered Dean as he stood up to take stock of things.

"It's still here because that's the man that is left, the evil took him over but there were still bits of humanity left," the Hatali answered as he leaned over to close the man's eyes.

"This was once a well loved man in this town. He will be missed."

The old man turned to his grandson who lay bleeding in the dusty road behind the truck, "Natal, you shouldn't have, you should have run, my grandson." The old man knelt beside the boy and began to weep. He held Natal's hand and didn't notice the shadow that suddenly covered his grandson's body. Cas leaned down and touched the young man's forehead. "This may hurt some, do you trust me? Can you relax and let me help?" he asked the young boy who barely nodded his head, he was almost gone. Light streamed around Cas and into the young man who let out a brief scream before passing out. Sam had picked up Mirai again and was standing over the two when Cas raised his head and smiled. He will live, he still needs to get the hospital but he will live. Mirai reached out to just left of the angel, "Your wings, Cas, they shine so beautiful in the sun, are they as soft as the sunlight?" she asked half aware as the blood loss from her wounds made her weak. Cas took her from Sam's arms, stronger than he appeared he held her gently and wrapped his wings around her sending his grace in to heal her wounds.

"Wings? Why don't Sam and I get to see your wings?" asked Dean

"No human should be able to see them. The sight of angels in their true from is normally death to your kind," he responded in that serious quiet gravelly tone of his as he finished healing Mirai. "I don't know that she sees my real wings but I think she sees the ideal of them somehow. Here Dean, you take her now, protect her, she needs to sleep and she will only do that if you are watching over her. I don't know why but she feels safe with you two so take her someplace safe and let her sleep." Cas smiled up at Dean and with a blink he was gone.

"Come, I have a Hogan not far from here, they can both rest there until we can get the ambulance to come," grunted the Hatali as he struggled to rise from the ground. Sam helped him up then lifted his grandson to the back of the truck. Dean held Mirai in the cab of the truck, stroking her hair gently as she curled into his arms. Sam drove them down the hill relieved to see all of the nephews alive if injured, waiting at the base of the mountain. He followed the old man's directions and pulled up outside of an six sided building. From the outside it looked like something that had been built in the prehistoric era but inside it was actually very comfortable. There was a queen sized bed on one side and a small sofa on the other side. Sam put Natal down on the sofa careful to not bang his head or any other area that might be hurt. The Hatali covered his son with a Pendleton wool blanket and sat in a chair near the sofa. He made a quick call for medical aid but it would take them hours to get to the remote cabin. Dean carried Mirai to the bed and removed her boots. He wrapped a sheet around her then kicked off his own boots and climbed into the bed next to her gently laying an arm over her he covered them both with the comforter on the bed. Seeing the incredulous look Sam gave him, he smiled "Hey Cas said she felt safe with me watching over her, so I am watching over her. Plus I didn't really sleep, that hallucination from the sweat lodge kept coming back. After everything, I think she just needs someone to hold her for a while, like a sister not what you are thinking."

"Yeah, what did you see in your dream?" asked Sam as he settled onto a chair near the bed.

"Mom and Dad arguing about me. She held me and told me to keep an eye on you. I don't know why it bothered me so much but I guess, I just feel like I failed them somehow. I haven't really done a very good job caring for you. What about you? what did you see?" Dean told his brother another half truth.

"Jess, she told me to move on, to let her go. I still miss her after everything, Ruby, Hell, well everything, I still miss Jess. Dean, it wasn't your fault and you have always been there for me. You can't be expected to be able to face all of this alone you know," Sam responded with his own half truth.

"Crap, we just had a chick flick moment didn't we?" smiled Dean tired of all this emotional bull, he turned away from Sam and pulled Mirai in closer, loving the smell of cedar and sage in her hair as he slid away to sleep himself.

"Don't worry big brother, I won't tell the whole world you had a girly moment, and I will keep watch on you this time" smiled Sam as he settled back into the arm chair watching the door.


End file.
